Ode to Chaos
by Nicaeus
Summary: RanmaIn Nomine crossover. Ranma is caught in the middle of Celestial political mess.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: All copyrighted material is property of their respective owners. I own nothing. This work is merely to show my appreciation to the original creators.

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Shal-Mari, Hell

Kobal, the Demon Prince of Dark Humor and The Court Jester of Hell sat in the backroom of his private office in Hell, and was completely absorbed in his most common hobby in recent times. He was brooding and staring at the back wall of the room. It had been a long time since anything had truly amused him as he felt he had already seen every possible nasty gag played and every form of humiliation presented in some form too many times to count.

He was bored, totally and completely bored. Even that little prank war with a certain Malakite of Creation that had been on even before he Fell had lost most of its amusement factor. Sure he did chuckle a bit when Amesoton had massacred several of his servitors by fighting them in dog food factory couple of days ago. The end result had been several sacks of dried-demon kibble which the Malakite had sold for nice profit. Yes, that had been quite hilarious for a while but what Kobal truly needed was something big, messy and truly daring. It had been several centuries since last such gag and sadly he was out of non-suicidal ideas.

In Kobals opinion his current mindset was too close for comfort of what it had been just before the Fall. Jaded and bitter just like then. At least he had no God hounding him with some "perfect" joke that He wanted him to machinate. He wanted to do his own scheming. Then it hit him. The Perfect Joke. God hadn´t revealed it to him but had given him a sealed letter and told him to open and read it when the time would be right. He had tossed the letter away soon afterwards but that pesky little thing had popped up again when he had been organizing his realm in the city of Shal-Mari, one of the principalities of Hell. He had tried to destroy it as it annoyed him to no end but it had resisted. Finally Kobal had relented and had stuffed the letter in a drawer and forgot it for several dozen millenia.

Now that same drawer was sitting in the darkest corner of the room and looked oh so inviting in Kobals eyes. Maybe he should at least read what Gods idea of "the Joke" was. He could always improvise and twist it. He walked to the drawer, opened it and snatched the letter out. After long just looking at the letter he opened it and started reading. Very soon a genuine smirk possessed his features and he started to laugh loudly, heartily and maliciously.

"Got to admit this to you God, I have never seen anything more devious as this is" Kobal whispered after catching his breath and then he started to laugh again so loudly that propably everyone in Shal-Mari heard him.

Down the street, in a greasy all-you-can-eat buffet a monstrous ball of fur with a big maw commonly known as Haagenti, Demon Prince of Gluttony, was devouring a mountain of food as it heard the laughter.

"Ooh," it said. "I hope my buddy Kobal has figured out something delicious!"

Then the devouring of the food continued with hastened speed.

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Yves´s Library, The Eternal City, Heaven

A young Cherub of Destiny silently made her way through the ever sifting corridors of the greatest collection of knowledge in all Creation. She had been summoned alone in the presence of her Archangel for the very first time so she was a bit anxious and curious for the reason why the eldest of the angels would want to talk with one of the youngest, as she was only decade old and barely out of the training.

Koriel had been in Yves´s presence before, of course, as the Archangel did some of the training himself and had lectured many times for many aspects of his Word so she feared not meeting him as he had always felt like a kind grandfather to her. His presence was soothing and calming, unlike so many other Archangels. Koriel shuddered briefly as she recalled the only instance when she had been in the presence of the Archangel of Judgment and he had looked at her below his all-concealing black robes.

She banished the thought and stepped around the corner of a bookshelf almost colliding with Yves who had been browsing a book there.

"Um, I´m sorry my lord, I..." She stammered.

"That is alright young one, no harm done." The old archangel interrupted. "And mere Yves will do fine."

"Alright, Yves." Koriel said timidly.

"Good. Now that you are here, we can proceed. I have decided that you are ready for your first assignment in the corporeal world." The old Archangel put the book in his hands back to shelf and headed to the direction where Koriel had come gesturing her to follow.

"Earth!" Koriel was now smiling widely.

"Yes, Koriel. You will be sent to Earth to be born to human parents so that you can safely adjust in a role as one of them. I need someone to watch the area you will be sent and it´ll be good training for you. Now run along to see what kind of equipment Tilsrur has for you."

"Thank you, my lord Yves." Koriel responded before leaving.

Yves looked after Koriel sadly and after she was out of sight sighed. "Thank me not, Koriel for you may find Earth a hard place to be. I fear for you as your Destiny and Fate require almost same path."

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In armory Koriel was greeted by a sight of two malakim fighting with swords. One of them, Orizon, was an youngling like her and was rapidly being trashed by the older Tilsrur while all of his moves were commented and analyzed. Koriel had been subjected to same "training" many times before and winced every time Tilsrur swinged his sword.

Finally Tilsrur finished the match with a mighty swing that knocked Orizon to nearest wall and turned to Koriel. "Well, if it isn´t my favorite Cherub. I have your gear waiting over here." He gestured towards a table filled with all sorts of weapons and gear.

"Ok, you are not able to use these before your fourteenth birthday in your corporeal role but we are going trought these now anyway. Here. This is your main ranged weapon." Tilsrur produced machinegun from somewhere.

Koriel sweatdropped. "Um..."

"Here´s your sidearm." This time he produced a .50 Desert Eagle with word "executor" carved in its barrel. "Lucky girl, this baby fires Essence powered holy bullets in addition of normal ones."

The sweatdrop grew. "Ehh..."

"And now your melee weaponry. First some throwing knives and their accessories. Then a rapier for close defence." Said blades popped out of nowhere to the table.

"Um, ok."

"I´m not finished yet, girl. This here is your main melee weapon." He slammed a long glowing Dai-katana to the table. Koriel was busily inspecting the floor after major facefault. (Perhaps it would be best to mention that Tilsrur was a Malakim of Sword on loan to Destiny for training purposes.)

"And now your protective gear..."

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Somewhere in Japan, Earth, 1986, Ten years later.

The Shedite chuckled slightly by himself as it thought its next intended victim. The boy was so perfect. Young, pure of heart and with the father being like he was the shedite could get away with almost anything before it would need to possess someone else. Actually the father had been a source of constant inspiration to the demon for the little while it had been watching them.

It had been trailing the boy and his father for days now, possessing random people around them. Now, it decided, was the time to possess the boy before the idiot father would damage him too much, although there definitely was something hilarious in the situation. How many times did you see a kid dropped in a pit of starving cats for training, afterall. And the punchline of this joke was the fact that the father genuinely thought this as some sort of martial arts training. The shedite exited the latest host which it had been using to observe the situation at the pit hidden so that it wouldn´t be detected and slipped in a celestial form through the hillside to the pit to where the boy had just been flung again.

It found the kid sobbing in the middle of meowing, hissing, clawing and very hungry cats. The chaotic scene resembled somewhat that meeting with the demons of gluttony that he had been dragged by his superior.

After sliding in the body and short fighting against the almost gone willforce of the boy the demon thought it was in control but something was amiss. The boys fear and pain almost overflooded the Shedites mind. Normally it would just have a somewhat vague feeling of the emotions. Now they felt like the demons own. More alarming was the weird feeling that the boys body was not just a possessed "meat-suit" but actually part of its being. Not being entirely stupid it decided to leave the body, and failed totally. Somehow the boys soul had entrapped the demon.

The demon panicked, all these new sensations were way too much, it wanted out, it wanted the pain to stop, it wanted papa... Wait that was the boy. The Shedite was now totally confused. Its survival instincts started to kick in as all coherent thoughts from both the boy and demon ceased. It started to yowl and hiss and flail.

The man outside of the pit was thoroughly shocked as the boy suddenly burst out of the pit heading to the woods nearby. After moment of bewilderment he ran after his ungrateful son. It would do no good to lose him or his wife would definitely kill him with that damnable sword of hers.

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China, 1996.

Kobal giggled in anticipation. He had hunted down the pair of martial artists and was now approaching them in the disquise of old Chinese man. The pair had just set up a camp and were cooking dinner for themselves.

"Excuse me young sirs but could an old man ask to spend a night at your camp and perhaps have a small share of your food. I lost my camping gear couple of days ago and thus am forced to

visit a nearby town and it is quite a long trip." Kobal asked after reaching the pair´s camp.

"I´m not..." The man started.

"Shut it pops. We cannot just leave him without food and warm. It´s a cold night." The boy interrupted.

"Worry not, young sirs. I can pay for your hospitality. Here, in exchange of the food and place to sleep I will give you this guide to the legendary training grounds at Jusenkyo. It shows the location of the training grounds and has much information which young martial artist like yourselves will find interesting. Besides you can visit nearby tribes. I´m sure they will teach you some very interesting technigues. Oh and not to forget, the tribe of Joketsuzoku will have a feast planned soon. If you hurry, you may be able to participate it." Inside his head Kobal was howling with laughter by now.

The man´s eyes were gleaming. "Deal."

The trio then gathered around the bonfire to eat. The boy and the man ate with unbelievable speed trying to steal food from each other and Kobal. Kobal ate slowly, defended his plate succesfully and chuckled at the other´s antics.

"What´s so amusing, old man?" The boy asked.

"Nothing my boy, it is just that you two remind me much of a certain friend of mine. He too has quite healthy appetite. Perhaps I shall introduce you to him if we meet again."

The boy shrugged and resumed eating.

The next morning when the two martial artists woke up the old man was gone. All that remained was the brochure of the Jusenkyo area.

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A/N Here it is. The start of my first fanfic. All feedback is appreciated and since I´m not a native English speaker there may be untold amount of mistakes in the text. Thus I´d like someone to proofread my texts before uploading. If you are interested e-mail me.

Then some help for those not familiar with In Nomine -universe:

Essence: The energy with which everything in the Universe operates. It is generated by living beings and thus is comparable to ki or chi (at least I´m using them as same thing in this fic).

Angelic Choirs in order of descending divinity:

Seraphim - These angels cand detect falsehoods and if lucky what the real truth is.

Cherubim – The guardian angels. They Know their charges current location and sometimes more.

Ofanim – The agents of motion capable of mind-boggling speed and accuracy.

Elohim – Elohim are the most logical of the angels always trying to be objective and hide emotions.

Malakim – The Warrior Angels, incapable of Falling, are the terror of Demons

Kyriorates – These angels can posses people or animals and do not usually have their own body on earth.

Mercurians – The most humanlike of angels. They are the celestial negotiators.

The angels can Fall and thus become the members of corresponding Band. Exception of this are the Malakim who cannot fall. Their counterparts, the Lilim, have never been angels to begin with.

Demonic Bands in ascending order from furthest from God to least furthest.

Balseraphs – The Liars are capable to twist the truth so that almost anyone will believe them. Even Seraphim must be careful when dealing with them. For reference Lucifer is a Balseraph.

Djinni – These demon are the enforcers and guardians of Hell.

Calabim – They destroy almost all which they touch with a entropic field their soul generates

Habbalah – Twisted, delusional. They think themselves still as angels and are set to test and punish people to see if they are worthy.

Lilim – The daughters of Lilith, first wife of Adam. They can make deals that literally bind targets soul by laying a Geas to the side who is required to do something in return when they for example provide something needed.

Shedim – The vilest of the Demons. They possess people and drive them to do evil untill the possessed is too corrupted to be able to do anything more evil than their last malicious act was.

Impudites – The most humanlike of demons. Like Mercurians except for motives and the fact that they are capable of extracting Essence from people.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: All copyrighted material is property of their respective owners. I own nothing. This work is merely to show my appreciation to the original creators.

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Nerima, Japan, 1996.

After Jusendo Ranma had hoped that the craziness in his life would have toned down. Then came the wedding. Its failure had strained the relationships in Tendo home to cold war level as Akane had blamed both Ranma and Nabiki for what had happened. Nabiki had acted as nothing out of ordinary had happened and this had infuriated Akane even further and Ranma had had to bear the brunt of her anger. Fathers were ignoring all this as usual and had tried to push them together several times in the next few months. All this had started to undermine Ranma´s confidence and he had started to become depressed.

Some good things had come out of this mess though. Ranma´s mother had noticed her child´s plight and had decided to try to ease the burden on Ranma´s shoulders. After talking with him she had destroyed the seppuku contract and told Ranma it was never meant for him, only for Genma. Ranma of course had been extremely grateful and tried to spend as much time as possible with his mother to catch up the lost years.

Kasumi too had grown a little closer to Ranma and had started considering him as an younger brother. She had become very distressed at the way things were between the younger members of the household and was trying everything possible to calm down Akane and cheer up Ranma. Only the latter had had any success as Akane had refused to listen anything that had something to do with Ranma.

Right now Ranma was strolling slowly towards Tendo dojo looking dejected. He was returning from school after another hellish schoolday. Nothing unusual though, and that was the most disturbing part of it all. First coming late at school because of an argument with Akane as she had decided to do the breakfast for chance. The result was a destroyed kitchen, Kasumi who looked like she would burst in tears any second and Ranma being blamed for all this as the "Breakfast," which had somehow attained a chitin shell, spindly legs and beady red eyes, managed to escape him.

If only that would have been enough but no. He had punted Kuno to orbit as usual, and also arrived late in class which resulted in bucket duty, though he really did not mind that too much. If only Akane wouldn´t have been in bucket duty too. Her nagging had caused Ranma to insult her like usual, as an uncute tomboy and with other even more unflattering names. Predictably this resulted in a malleting. Akane had used even more force than she normally did, and Ranma had made a sizable hole in the outer wall of the school. Rest of the day he had spent unconscious in the nurses office.

Sigh "I Guess since that tomboy destroyed the kitchen I´m gonna starve today." Ranma hadn´t had anything to eat since last evening and his stomach started to remind him with loud growls. He was not going to eat in either Ucchans or Neko-Hanten as he had decided to take some distance to his fiancée**'**s after the reckless actions of Ukyo and Shampoo in the failed wedding. More so he had no money to buy food elsewhere as Nabiki had extorted everything out of him a couple of days before. So he tried to ingnore his stomach and continued his way home.

"Hold, foul sorcerer and enslaver of women, for today you shall surely fall before the might of my blade!" The True Blunder of Furinkan High had evidently decided to get rid of Ranma for good and was approaching him fast, swinging a real sword for a change.

"Aw, jeez. Couldn´t ya just get lost Kuno. I´m not interested in pounding ya now," Ranma said.

"Silence sorcerer. Release the beautiful Akane Tendo and the Pigtailed girl..." Ranma had heard enough and struck Kuno hard enough to get him to lose consciousness. Unfortunately at the very moment Ranma hit Kuno he heard or felt, he wasn´t sure which, a jarring noise that made him flich as it resulted in momentary sharp pain in his head.

"Oww. What the hell was that," Ranma wondered as he staggered away, leaving Kuno lying on the street.

Soon afterwards Ranma arrived at the Tendo home and found it almost completely empty, save Kasumi who was still trying to get the kitchen in shape enough to serve its normal purpose.

"Oh my, Ranma-kun. You look like you need a relaxing backrub or bath. How was your day?" Kasumi was trying to clear up the damaged kitchen counter table that, like most of the kitchen, had been covered with sickly green goo that morning, as an aftereffect of explosion of Akane´s cooking. Kasumi had managed to get rid of most of the goo by now, but several places were still rather sticky.

"Hello, Kasumi. The day sucked as usual." At this Kasumi frowned slightly. "Got any food? My lunch was destroyed by the Tomboy and I haven´t had anything to eat since yesterday. And where is everybody?"

"Sorry Ranma-kun. As you can see there is not much left of the kitchen." Indeed, the fridge door was torn off and the inside was completely empty. The destruction did not end there, as most of the cabinet doors were ripped off too, and the table surfaces were full of scratch-marks.

"Huh? What´s going on? Wasn´t the oven the only thing that Akane blew up?"

"Yes, but soon after you had left for school the thing that Akane cooked up came back and raided the kitchen. It was rather scary, but luckily it only wanted the food. Oh, and Akane is at her friends house and will come later, Nabiki is upstairs balancing the finances and our fathers have 'retreated to ponder what to do with the kitchen issue' as they put it." Kasumi did look slightly disapproving.

"Ya mean they went to get plastered, typical," Ranma snorted. "We really got nothing to eat?"

"No, sorry, I have had no time to go buy anything today as the mess here is what itis." Kasumi handed Ranma a shopping list. "I would be grateful if you did the shopping for me today. I´ll prepare something light as soon as you come back."

"Sure, Kasumi. Anything for ya," Ranma responded.

"My thank you, Ranma-kun."

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After checking the list Ranma stepped outside and headed to markeplace. He decided to do some balance training on top of the fence. However, since the fight with Kuno he had had a slightly off feeling inside his head and this resulted him stumbling lightly, losing his balance and falling straight into the bush next to the fence.

"Ouch, I..." Ranma´s voice trailed off as he registered the gruesome sight in front of his eyes. There laid the "Breakfast" curled at the root of the bush. It was very dead and several bulletholes of a rather large caliber weapon told how it had died. It seemed like it had dragged itself from somewhere to this location before dying.

"Eww, gross," Ranma exclaimed at the scene. Then he started to feel sorry for the creature. It had not hurted anyone as far as he knew, only done some property damage, and still someone had killed it here. Ranma sighed. He would have resorted only in beating it up and dragging it somewhere remote as he had no intentions to kill anything after what had happened with Saffron.

"I guess I should at least do something to yer body." He fired a Moko Takabisha. The shot hit the creatures body but instead of incinerating right away the body was instantly cowered with intense bright white flames. The bush also catched fire and soon Ranma was staring at a large bonfire. He also had the same sensation as before with Kuno. The jarring noise was there just not as sharp although it was a lot louder. Luckily the fire consumed both the body and the bush rapidly, and died down to normal looking small fire.

"Oops, how'd I do that. Better find some water fast and put the fire out though ´fore it spreads."

This said he turned, stumbled again and fell into a koi pond he hadn´t noticed before. She pried herself out of the water and started to chuckle darkly.

"Alright, where´s the damn kami who´s messing my life. Come here and I´ll pound ya," She shouted to the sky.

"Excuse me," a voice said behind her.

She turned and was greeted by an angry scowl of the man who owned the yard.

"What´s going on here, girl? Why are you trying to destroy my yard," the man demanded.

"Um, ItwasanaccidentImsorrygottagobye." Ranma decided to use the Saotome Secret Technique and bolted from the scene leaving the man gaping after him. "Damn Martial Artists," the man said before fetching water to extinguish the fire.

After speeding down to normal pace Ranma finally managed to get to marketplace without further incidents. She bought the food and headed home. She absolytely needed something to eat and catch some shut-eye as the burning bush stunt had depleted unusually high amount of her energy-reserves and she had started to feel quite tired.

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Later that night several people were sitting around a table in a warehouse office at the outskirts of Nerima discussing quietly.

An elder man dressed in expensive three-piece suit glanced at the only woman in the room. "So, Koriel, what actually caused all that disturbance today?"

"Most Holy, the one in the morning was just a minor ethereal spirit which got loose for a while. I dealt with it but it escaped and managed to die somewhere on its own."

"And the other one?"

"That was the Boy. For some reason he lit up a Celestial bonfire in someones backyard."

"I see. So he has learned to summon Celestial fire by himself. Most impressive feat for mortal."

"He is nowhere near a normal human. Didn´t you read the report of what happened at Jusendo?"

"I did."

The young redhaired man in black suit who had thus far remained silent decided to participate in the discussion. "Indeed, the young man is an interesting person, but we should focus on more pressing things at the moment. Does anyone know where Seris is? He should have been here half an hour ago with the files."

Like he had been waiting for his name to be mentioned a man in disheveled clothing stormed in and started babbling a mile in a minute.

"SorryforbeinglateIranoverademonandthecargotsomedamage. IguessitwasaCalabitebecausethecarwouldnthavetakenasmuchdamageotherwise. YouwantedtoknowiftherewasanynewdemonsaroundlatelysoIbroughtthefilesfromAlael"

Seris twitched and hopped from one foot to another while talking like he couldn´t be still for a single moment.

"Slow down fool." The young man tried to bury his fist in Seris´ face, but the excited man nimbly avoided the blow. Koriel groaned and hid her face behind her hands as she watched this too often repeated show. The older man cocked an eyebrow and uttered one word.

"Stop."

Both combatants froze immediately. Even Seris managed to be still for several seconds before moving again.

"Seris, Merhtal. This is no time to be fooling around like that. We need to read through these files, and decide how to deal with these Diabolicals. Actually, Seris, why don´t you go back patrolling, and if the car is damaged as you said leave it here. Dolnamar will fix it tomorrow."

"Sure, J." Seris actually managed to keep a pause between words this time. Then he vanished out of the door.

"Very well. Now let us go over these files", J, or Jahaziel, as his whole name was, stated calmly and took several folders from the pile that Seris had dropped on the table. Others followed suit.

After she had examined all files in her pile Koriel separated three of the folders from the rest. "These three seem to be my only concern at the moment. The remnant is not a big trouble, although he is rather unpredictable in his movements. Last time he was around was two weeks ago when he caused major property damage fighting the Boy. Thus far I have managed to minimize the property damadge he causes so I will continue to observe but not confront him."

Jahaziel nodded. "Very well, Koriel. I trust your judgement on this although I would like some more info of this remnant of yours."

"As you wish, Most Holy. He was once powerful servitor of Revelation but Fell and was almost soulkilled in combat against Amesoton, one of the highest ranking Malakim of Creation. He propably lost most of his memories and now wanders around the world looking who knows what."

The young man looked excited at the mention of the old Malakite. "Amesoton? Wow! When this happened?"

"They fought each other about twenty thousand years ago or so Yves told me."

Jahaziel smiled at the youngsters enthusiasm. "Yes, I remember that. It was quite a fight. Let us continue the task at hand though."

"Next is the Chinese wild sorceress and her followers. They are relatively harmless and pose no danger whatsoever to any plans of the host. We need only keep quiet so that she does not spot us but that is naturally a given course of action even if they were not here. Their main purpose is to lure the Boy back to China with them. Thus far they have had no success and like before I´ll observe the situation and interfere if needed."

Merhtal did not like the idea of letting someone who in his books was evil be in peace. "She is still a sorceress. Their kind are almost without exception selfish and evil. I say we should cut her down."

"I disagree. Despite all the incidents she has caused over the year-and-a-half she has been here in Nerima she does not deal with demons. And besides, she is an invaluable source of knowledge and training for certain people who definitely will need those skills. No, the Pervert is the one I am most concerned of. He is powerful enough to control lower level demons with ease, and I wouldn´t be too suprised if he was in an active contract with Hell. I can not do anything without compromising my cover so I would like to ask your help in dealing with him Merhtal."

"I know him. I´ll gladly help dealing with him and would like to do so as soon as possible."

"We can strike as soon as he comes around next time."

"If that is settled perhaps we should concentrate on the actual demons." Jahaziel had separated four folders from the pile he had been examining. "These demons of Technology are the main concern of us who are servitors of Lightning but these two also trouble me. The Impudite drains people in the open without care and the Lilim is in position to cause untold amount of damage."

"Yes, I wonder why they have been allowed to remain here for so long, even if we have known of them almost the moment they arrived." Now these creeps were not going to get away from him. They were demons after all.

"Most Holy, Merhtal, forgive me for asking this, but were you not briefed about the Lilim in question when you were assigned here."

The men gave negative answer.

"Then I should infrom you that I was spesifically forbidden to harm the Lilim by Yves himself. He said that to do so would raise the ire of one of the most powerful servitors of Eli, and perhaps even the Archangel himself. No, we must leave her be. And besides, she has proven to be quite helpful when dealing with other demons in the area. Last month I managed to kill some demons of Fate that were snooping around after she pointed them to me."

"I sense that you are serious about this. Very well, once again I shall trust your judgement as you have excellent record so far and have been in the area for a long time", Jahaziel said. Merhtal merely grumbled something but nodded nonetheless.

"The Impudite is another matter entirely. She has some history with the Pervert and a couple of Djinni, who she can call for aid. So far I have had no luck tracking down the Djinni, and the Impudite has been very careful not to go in places where she could be dealt privately. I can not compromise my Role so my hands have been tied. Instead I have done what I can to ensure that my charges are safe from them."

"I understand. Now that we are here they will be dealt with. After all we do have superior numbers and two Malakim for the job. We must just wait for a good opportunity. I think that we should actually capture and interrogate her before we kill her", Jahaziel said. "Any other celestial we should worry about? Merhtal?"

"No, Most Holy, the ones I checked are not in our area currently. If there are no Shedites or such lurking around, we know all of our enemies."

"By the way, shouldn´t Tabiel have been here today?" Koriel decided to ask the question that had bugged her since they had arrived at the warehouse at midnight.

Jahaziel sighed. "She called me and said something was up and she needed to be 'in role' for the whole night so I excused her from this meeting. She was not actually needed today as she is not a combatant."

"Oh, very well." Koriel did not voice it, but suspected that the bouncy Mercurian had decided to spend the night with her human lover instead of coming in the meeting. In her opinion such a sloppy attitude would not do at all. She decided to have little word with Tabiel as soon as possible.

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Next morning Ranma had the usual Panda Air flight straight to the koi-pond as a wake-up call.

After a quick Pound-the-Panda, and even quicker breakfast, he and Akane headed to school. For the entire trip Akane refused to talk to him, or even aknowledge his presence. She was obviously still mad at him, though Ranma had no idea for her reasons. Wasn't it the Tomboy who destroyed the kitchen. Ranma shrugged and continued running.

Suddenly Ranma stopped. The backpack lying on the side of the street looked quite familiar. So did the figure lying in a human shaped crater in the middle of the street.

"Poor Ryoga, who would have done something like this to you." Akane ran to the fallen martial artist and tried to wake him.

Snort "Pigboy propably got malleted. Sure looks like it", Ranma commented although he was a bit worried. Ryoga was quite tough and anyone capable of doing this to him would be an opponent to be taken at least somewhat seriously.

"Ranma, you idiot. Can´t you see he´s hurt", Akane shouted and malleted Ranma so that he formed similar crater to the ground.

"Ouch. Sheesh, cut it out tomboy. Ryoga´s alive and he´s a fast healer. He´ll be up and tormenting me soon enough."

This was the moment Ryoga decided to regain consciousness.

"Uhhm. A-Akane? What are you doing in Los Angeles?"

"Ryoga, you're in Nerima. What happened? Who did this to you?"

Ryoga looked a bit embarrassed and muttered something under his breath. Akane managed to hear him nonetheless.

"A car? You were overdriven by a car? Kami-Sama! We must get you to a doctor."

"I-I´m okay A-akane", Ryoga reassured her and stood up. "It just bumped slightly. I was just going over a street in Los Angeles when I saw this car coming straight towards me with unbelievable speed. Then someone laughed and shouted "Die, Demon" and that´s all I remember."

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In an old storage building a mechanic was staring at the damaged car and cursing a certain Ofanite. How in the Hell had he managed to smash the windscreen with an umbrella, that just happened to be a minor corporeal artefact?

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"Are you sure you are alright Ryoga? Maybe you should go to see a doctor anyway."

"No, its not necessary. I´ll just go and hunt down that bastard who did this", Ryoga snarled. "Did you hear. I will hunt you down and kill you!" He then wandered off, disappearing around the corner.

"Jeez. Ryoga´s an idiot. Didn´t he just say he didn´t know who it was", Ranma commented.

"RANMA! Don´t pick on poor Ryoga! Can´t you have any compassion?" Akane malleted Ranma towards Furinkan High, where he landed straight through his homeroom window and almost wrecked several desks and students.

"While I appreciate that you arrived in time I must still punish you because of the ruckus you caused, Saotome you delinquent!" Hinako Ninomiya was not amused at Ranma´s entrance. "HAPPO GOJU-EN SATSU!"

Ranma flinched and doubled over as the attack hit him. Then he dragged himself to his desk and sat. About five minutes later Akane arrived slightly late.

"Miss Tendo, it seems you need to be reminded about being on time in the class. Bucket-duty", the currently adult teacher ordered. Akane spared a murderous clance at Ranmas direction and went to retrieve the buckets.

"Now then, let us concentrate again on learning", Hinako said, and the class resumed in its normal course.

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An elegant woman in business-suit greeted two men who were sitting on rooftop opposite Furinkan High. "Morning guys, has anything interesting happened lately?"

A small gaijin man with hitech videocamera and headmicrophone -set shrugged. "Nah. The violent girlie merely punted Ranma through classroom window. Nothing else worth mentioning"

"Keep watching, Zef. We need something out of ordinary. If they themselves do nothing of the sort we need to fix something ourself."

"Sure, Shina. I´m sure Gebby here has some nice ideas."

Gebby, an young man wearing jeans and ´I´m with stupid´ T-shirt cracked a small smile. "Yup."

Shina too smiled lightly. "Good. Where´s Tenma?"

Zef glanced at her direction slightly annoyed. "Inside Furinkan trying to film them of course. Where else?"

"Don´t use that tone with me unless you want trouble!"

"Yeah, So?"

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Just as the class was about to end the door was opened and a brown haired man wearing a black suit and polaroids stepped in. He produced a police badge from his pocket and pointed a pistol towards Hinako.

"Ninomiya Hinako, you are under arrest for..." This far he managed to speak before Hinako blasted the energy collected from Ranma towards him. The result was a loud boom which led the man and all the students stunned and unable to react as Hinako bolted towards the door and shouted "YOU WILL NEVER CATCH ME MORON!". Shrieking of female students, shouts of male students and automatic weapon fire could be heard from distance.

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"What the hell was that? Someone threw a Song of Thunder", Zef said after the booming voice reached them. He then aimed the camera toward Ranma´s classroom.

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Moments earlier in the hallway of the second floor.

Merhtal was running towards the stairs.

"Now where are those Djinni", he mused by himself. Suddenly he was yanked downwards and found himself lying on the floor while a hail of bullets passed harmlessy over him.

"Sorryhadnochoice." Seris ran past and slammed himself at the janitor who had an AK-74 pointed towards the advancing pair. He then proceeded to pummel the janitor down with Amaguriken speed. After the janitor had been reduced to lifeless bloody pulp the Ofanite ran to the descending stairs. Meanwhile Merhtal had picked himself up from the floor, collected the assault rifle and headed to the opposite direction.

In the third floor Hinako ran past perplexed Akane.

"Akane-chan. Please delay that black suited pervert for me, okay", she shouted at the girl.

The word pervert became the trigger that brought Akane out of her dazed state and into mighty righteous rage. She manifested her mallet and proceeded to pummel the still stunned man to the floor.

"You monster. How could you stalk people like that. Die, pervert." The mallet descended to the man´s head.

The reaction however was not the desired one. The impact merely brought the man back in his senses.

"Out of the way girl. I have no time for you." The man showed Akane against the doorframe and bolted after Hinako. Only to be delayed by certain kendoist who had decided to come investigate.

"Hold vile demon. I shall have thy head for this outrage. By hurting the beauteous Tendo Akane you have called the wrath of Heaven upon yourself", Kuno declared while waving his bokken threateningly.

"Get lost stickboy", was his only answer as the man showed him aside and continued running.

In the classroom Ranma had managed to come in his senses. He still felt dizzy, and that annoying loud rumble from Hinakos blast had not diminished and somewhat seemed to impair his senses. He decided to stagger to the hallway.

´Gotta help teach. That man does not have good intentions.´

"Saotome, you vile sorcerer. I should have known you are behind this. I shall smite thee." Kuno had obviously recovered from being forcibly pushed against the wall.

"Not now, Kuno." Ranma punted Kuno against the wall and this time the kendoist decided losing consciousness was the best course of action. Ranma flinched again at the short and painful feeling/voice when his fist connected with Kuno but continued after the brunet nonetheless.

In the first floor Seris was rapidly dodging bullets that another janitor was shooting with his AK. He sang a quick verse and ducked as a bolt of lightning hit the janitor through the window. He screamed and his clothes were badly scorched but otherwise he seemed unharmed.

"Damn Ofanite. I´ll rip your guts for that." He grew claws on his hands and sharp fangs in his mouth and pounced at the Ofanite. Seris decided to retreat and ran towards the stairs. The janitor ran after him only to be impaled with a sword that Merhtal thrusted towards him. He struggled and manged to free himself. The large wound in his chest did not seem to slow him down at all as he swiped his claws towards his attacker. They exchanged several blows and the janitor almost managed to rip Merhtal**'**s gut but he dodged so that the blow only caused five long and deep wounds to his side. Ignoring the pain he jumped backwards and readied his gun.

"Bye bye." The janitor found himself staring at the barrel of an AK. Merhtal pulled the trigger and the Janitor dropped to the floor dead. The angels however did not have a chage to retreat from the scene before a pineapple-bomb went off next to them.

"Now you two be a pair of da bad boys. I´ll have to punish you", principal Kuno declared and threw another bomb .

Merhtal blocked the bomb and deflected it back to the principal. Then he grabbed the dazed Ofanite and ran away leaving behind another unconscious member of Kuno family. Not noticed by anyone a school nurse arrived at the scene little later and incinerated the dead body with a ki blast. Then she muttered something and dragged the unconscious pricipal towards the nurses office.

The brunet had managed to catch Hinako, and after short struggle had subdued her. Now he was running towards the main door of the school with the uncoscious teacher when Ranma saw him.

"Hey, creep. Release her now", Ranma shouted. The man ignored him and ran further. Ranma, who had mostly recovered from Hinakos blast, ran after him.

Outside the man ran to the waiting car and tossed Hinako in. Seris and Merhtal were already in, and as soon as the brunet got in the car speeded away. Ranma leaped and managed to land on the roof of the car. He then tried to rip the roof off and rescue Hinako. The reinforced materials resisted for a moment but ultimately gave in, and the roof was mostly torn off. Unfortunately Seris, who was driving, decided to speed up and make a sharp turn. This caused Ranma to be catapulted off the car, but he managed to land on his feet.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Whoa, this is prime footage. We´re going to get a nice episode for Nerima Jackass." Zef laughed and filmed the chase. "Hmm, better follow them", he then said and roofhopped after the car and the chasing martial artist and left the other two to the roof.

"Yess! I love Nerima. We´re going to get class A material for the show this time", Shina cheered.

"Yup, its pretty funny.", Gebby smirked. "Now if you excuse me I´ll go and find someone to prank."

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The car made another sharp turn and speeded away. Ranma leaped to a nearby roof and chased after the car. After a short chase he saw the car pulling over, and the two suited men exited from it carrying still unconscious Hinako. The car sped away only to collide with Ryoga, who had been strolling along the road still looking for his assaulter. Seris lost control of the car and it smashed through nearby wall which promptly collapsed on top of it. Zef filmed all this from the nearby rooftop, put the camera away and collapsed in a fit of helpless laughter.

Meanwhile the men had dragged Hinako inside a sizeable warehouse. Ranma had followed them, but as he tried to enter the building the door didn´t open, and he noticed a faint aura around the door and nearby walls. Determined to get in he struck the door but it resisted the blow.

Then he tried all windows he could find but they were similarly enhanced.

´Well, if you cannot go through the door, do a Ryoga and go through the wall´ Ranma thought, and applied the breaking point technigue to the nearby wall. It crumbled almost instantly.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Meanwhile, inside the building

"What on Earth you were thinking?" A very furious Koriel glared at the two Malakim, and the prone form of Hinako. "The plan was to wait for an opportunity and try to do it quietly, but you three idiots just had to storm in and make a huge mess. By the way, Alael asked me to shoot you both for making her clean up after your mess. Thankfully she managed to get rid of the bodies of the Djinni before the students saw that they were actually dead and not injured. AND ON TOP OF THAT YOU TWO RAVING LUNATICS ENDANGERED **_THE BOY_**. ONE MORE STUNT LIKE THAT AND I WILL KILL YOU!"

The men sweatdropped. "Um, we did get the job done though", one of them offered.

"Yes, that you did, but you managed to lead the Boy here and he most certainly will want his teacher released instantly or the ones responsible will be in a world of hurt. Now go and subdue him, but mark my words carefully. If you hurt him I hurt you. Badly."

Ranma stepped inside and instantly pulled the Umisenken cloak around him. Then he headed to seek Hinako or her kidnappers. He found Merhtal in a small room filled with boxes.

"KACHUU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN." Ranma released dozens of hits towards the mans torso after dropping the Umisenken. Merhtal grunted as Ranma managed to hit his wounded side but shrugged off the attack and tried to get Ranma in a hold. Ranma dodged and leaped, took speed from the wall and kicked Merhtal to the head which dazed the Malakite just long enough for him not to be able to react to the next hit to the side of his head which took him out. Ranma then continued his search and finally came to the storage office. There he encountered the other man and bound Hinako.

The man leaped towards him only to receive several vicious hits in his midsection and collapsed on the floor. He was almost instantly up however and grapped Ranma to a firm hold. Ranma expecting this made a countermove and threw the man to nearby pile of boxes which unfortunately for the man contained several heavy machine parts. He was knocked out instantly.

Ranma then unbound Hinako and tried to wake her up. After several attempts she did awake and immediately tried to bolt away.

Ranma tried to calm down the panicked girl. "Relax, teach. It´s me, Ranma."

"R-Ranma, but how? How did you manage to subdue those men. They are very powerful."

"Bah. They were just pushovers. After all I´m the best," Ranma said cockily.

"Hmph. You are just a deliquent but thanks still for rescuing me." Hinako hugged ranma. "Now lets get out of here."

They headed back the same way Ranma had come in. Unfortunately Merhtal had recovered and lunged at Ranma. Ranma, however, kicked the man against the wall and proceeded to pummel him enough to ensure he wouldn´t wake for a while. Merhtal, weakened by the earlier fight resisted only couple of minutes before collapsing into a heap on the floor.

Hinako managed to run to the hole Ranma had done to the wall and vanished to the labyrinth of the streets and alleys.

Ranma had finished bashing Merhtal and was going to follow Hinako when a slender arm encircled his chest, and he felt a pair of soft mouds pressing against his back. Realizing what they were from repeated exposure from Shampoos glomps, Ranma froze as his 'conditioning' kicked in and his body prepared for the incoming mallet. Despite the suprisingly strong hold he was in, Ranma couldn't help but to notice that it felt almost...gentle. Thus preoccupied he barely noticed a hand reaching for his shoulder. The last thing Ranma experienced before the darkness took him was a short pain, and a soft voice whispering in to his ear: "Forgive me, Ranma."

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Hinako ran. She had no intention to stop anytime soon. Her flight, however, was cut short as someone grabbed her to an alley just as she was running past it.

"Hello girl. This will hurt only a little", Her captor said. "Brace yourself. Here we go."

Hinakos world exploded. She sensed only an all-consuming light and almost unbearable pain.

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A/N

In Nomine is a Role playing game by Steve Jackson Games. If you want to have better idea go look at www(dot)sjgames(dot)com(slash)in-nomine(slash)

Some questions, answers and definitions:

Why Ranma is in pain when he kicks someone´s butt? Because he, inflicting violence against mortal, violates the harmony of the existence, the Symphony.

Symphony is the framework of everything that is. For those who are aware of it it manifests as endless and boundless backround music. Every single being, idea and object is a part of it and forms a note or tune in it. Doing something unusual like chi attack or harming a living being belonging to that plane of existence will create discordant notes that Celestials (Angels and Demons), Ethereal Spirits and trained or gifted humans can hear. If they are too near of the origin of the noise it manifests as pain.

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Planes of existence:

Celestial – Heaven and Hell.

Ethereal – The Marches, constantly changing dreamland, the home of Ethereal Dream Spirits. These Spirits are born from human imagination and usually cannot survive long on Earth. Old gods of Myth like Greek and Norse pantheons belong in this category. Humans visit the Marches every night when they dream.

Corporeal – Physical reality. Here Celestials and Ethereals can be in their true forms only short periods of time. If they wish to remain they must clothe themselves with physical body called vessel. This means that they can easily pass as normal humans or animals if they do not do something suspicious.

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Songs: Means to manipulate the Symphony. With them one can accomplish almost anything as long as the right tones inside of the Symphony are known. Examples are the Song of thunder used by Hinako when she escaped from the classroom, song of Lightning used by Seris against the janitor or the Song of Numinous Corpus used by the second janitor to grow the claws and teeth. Songs use Essence to work. Songs are divided in Celestial, Ethereal and Corporeal based on their object or method.

Roles: Way for Celestial and Ethereal spirits to blend in the human society. Basically a role is a human identity that if upheld greatly helps in keeping oneself hidden.

Forces: The building blocks of all existing beings and objects. They too are divided in Celestial, Etheral and Corporeal. More forces in one type a being has more powerful on that level of existence it is. Corporeal forces define physical properties, Ethereal define ones intelligence and Celestial define willpower and perception. Celestial forces also are the core of the soul and should human lose them all he will cease to exist. If Celestial or Etheral being loses them all but has physical body he will become a remnant bound in that body and will exist only as long as that body does.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: All copyrighted material is property of their respective owners. I own nothing. This work is merely to show my appreciation to the original creators.

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That night, somewhere in Nerima

In the new headquarters of the Nerimian angels the mood was rather sore. The two local Cherubim, Koriel and Alael, refused to talk with Seris or the two Malakim, Merhtal and Semal. They merely glared at them hard.

The Seraph, Jahaziel, had already nearly bitten off the heads of the irresponsible trio. Now he just stared forward and nursed a glass of whiskey, the one and only little sin he allowed himself occasionally. He sighed. At least the idiots were honest idiots. They had just thought that it would be a good plan, and being as young, inexperienced and impulsive as they were, had gone through with it.

Seris, the Ofanite, had vanished somewhere. The others were not too concerned, as he would be back and would be as cheery, manic and annoying as ever. He had to go away every now and then, as Ofanim needed to be as unconstrained as possible. Yes, he would be back soon and would propably be driving a new car too.

Tabiel, the Mercurian of Creation, was making origami, pouting, and generally ignoring the others. Koriel had dragged her in the meeting after a longish lecture about one´s responsibilities. In her opinion she had not done anything wrong, and had voiced it. Koriel had just told her that from now on she expected to see her in all the meetings from which she was not spesifically excused of. When they had arrived Tabiel had complained to Jahaziel that she really did not need to be there every night, as she had better things to do. Jahaziel had raised an eyebrow about the better part, but had told her that while she may not be needed in every meeting, her presence could be essential at times and thus she should be ready to come over at all times. He had told her to check her e-mail daily from now on to see wether she was needed or not.

The Malakites were sulking. Perhaps it was bit too impulsive and straightforward, but at least they got rid of the Djinni, and the Impudite had had to flee somewhere, and as such was not harassing the students of Furinkan High anymore. If only that Kid wouldn´t have come after them. In any case the two Malakim were quite impressed at the Kid. Not only had he swept the floor with both of them, but his honorable nature was clearly visible to them. No wonder Koriel had been assigned to watch over him.

The musings of the angels were suddenly interrupted as the door to the room swung open. The Malakites reacted instantly by drawing their weapons. The Cherubs too took a defensive stance and were ready to draw their weapons if necessary. The Seraph merely glared towards the door and took a sip from his whiskey and the Mercurian, being nearest of the door dived under the table for protection. In the doorway stood a gaijin man with a rasta hairdo wearing scruffy clothes. On his left shoulder he carried snoring adult Hinako.

"Whoa, guys. Calm down. I just decided to drop your new friend here." The man said and gently placed Hinako lying on the sofa that was in the corner of the room. "I thought to party a bit with her, but the poor dear has awfully low alcohol tolerance, so I brought her here to sleep it off. Well, I´ll be off. See ya later guys. Merry, my boy, come along. You need to have a little chat with someone." The man winked at Tabiel and Alael and stepped out of the room.

Merhtal suddenly looked very nervous. "Ok, boss." He said and with a resigned sight followed the scruffy man outside.

The room was left in utter silence, save for Hinakos quiet snoring. All eyes were on her.

"Did I see what I thought I saw?" The Malakite dressed as mechanic, Semal, asked.

"It was Boss alright." Tabiel said. "Haven´t seen him for a while."

"Yes, that was Eli-Sama. I wonder what he was doing here though." Jahaziel downed the rest of his whisky with one swing and went to examine sleeping Hinako. "I see..."

"What is it Most Holy?" Koriel asked. "I should propably leave soon or someone may notice my absence."

"You may leave, Koriel. Just attune yourself with our new Mercurian friend here first. You too Alael." Jahaziel pointed at Hinako.

The other four in the room gasped.

"Mercurian? But she was a perfectly evil little demon earlier today as far as I could tell." Semal was puzzled. Then it hit him. "Oh, of course. Eli."

"Yes, he must have Redeemed her." Jahaziel said. "Let us wake her up and greet her properly."

Jahaziel then sang a Song to remove all the alcohol from Hinako´s body.

"I didn´t know you knew any of the Songs of Purity. Aren´t they a secret?" Alael asked and cocked an eyebrow.

"Well, I was in Uriel´s service way back when he was still in lower heavens. When he was called upstairs I decided that I did not like Laurence enough to be in his service and sought Jean. He accepted me, and last 1200 years I have served Lightning. How did you recognize the Song? It is a secret Song after all."

"I did witness Eli perform the Ethereal version of the Song once before. The Corporeal is similar enough that I made a lucky guess."

Jahaziel nodded to the Cherub and shaked Hinako a little.

"Mmm, wha." Hinako slowly woke up. When she noticed the Seraph she freaked out. "Eep! Who are you? Where am I? Where´s Eli?"

"Relax, my Redeemed friend. You are in the new Angelic headquarters of Nerima. Eli-Sama brought you here only minutes ago and left. I suppose he means you to remain here. As for what comes to our identities I am Jahaziel, Seraph of Lightning. Over there are Alael and Koriel, Cherubim of Creation and Destiny." The Cherubs smiled and waved. "That one is Semal, Malakim of Lightning and our mechanic. He is the guy you bashed in the classroom this morning." At this Hinako chuckled nervously. Semal just shrugged and nodded with a ghost of smile. Jahaziel pointed at Tabiel. "This is Tabiel, your Choir-sister. She will help you to adjust to angelic life as both of you are of the same Choir and are both servitors of Creation. I hope you have nothing against this Tabiel." Jahaziel glared at the Mercurian in question.

"No problem, Jazz. I think we´ll do just fine. By the way what´s your name? I do know the name of your role but I doubt its your actual name." Tabiel smiled at Hinako and sat next to her.

"I am, or rather was Ahora. I feel like I should change my name too though, as Eli changed me otherwise." Hinako replied, still a bit nervous. Then she looked at the two Cherubim. "You two! I should have noticed." She chuckled and pointed at Alael. "How could I have missed you being an angel when I have met you daily for years now. And you, Koriel. Now that I think of it, everything in you screams 'look at me I am an angel'."

The Cherubs looked each other, shrugged and chuckled a bit too.

"It´s all about perception, Ahora-chan. It is nice to have you at our side. I guess I should leave now though. See you later everyone." Koriel said and left.

"I guess I´ll go too. Seris trashed his car pretty badly. I´ll need to check if there is anything left to fix, or should I just take all spare parts I can and scrap the rest." Semal said.

"Very well. Ahora, I need to question you about all possible Infernal activity and secrets you may know. I am sure you do not want a triad of Judgement to do this, so I´ll handle the questioning myself. We truly need that information." Jahaziel said. Ahora blached at the very thought of facing Judgement. They would propably shred her in tiny pieces for examining because of the method of her Redemption.

OS IUSTI MEDITABITUR SAPIENTIAM, ET LINGUA EIUS LOQUETUR IN DICIUM.

Ranma slowly drifted back into the world of the living. The first thing he noticed was that he was lying in the questroom of the Tendos. Second thing was that he was not alone. Kasumi was watching over him.

"Oh, Ranma-kun, you awakened. How do you feel?"

"Just peachy. My shoulder´s bit sore though. How did I end up here."

"You can thank my big sister for that, Saotome. She dragged you home after finding you lying out cold in the middle of the street yesterday. Whatever made you do such a crazy stunt?" Nabiki said as she entered the room.

"Is that a concern I hear Nabiki? Hell´s propably freezing..." Ranma said sarcastically. "Hey waitaminute, whaddya mean yesterday. How long I´ve been sleeping?"

"Concerned? Of course not. What were you thinking? I just did not want my biggest source of income to be harmed." Nabiki retorted and left.

"Oh my, Ranma-kun, that was not nice." Kasumi chided Ranma. "To answer your question I found you when I was grocery-shopping yesterday at noon. Its about three o´clock in the evening so you have slept bit over a day."

Ranma´s stomach growled in agreement. Ranma looked lighly embarrassed while Kasumi giggled.

"I suppose you need something to eat. I´ll go prepare a snack."

"Ok, Kasumi. I think I´ll go to dojo to do some katas. Haven´t had a decent practice for a while."

"Okay, Ranma-kun." Kasumi said and left to prepare the food.

BEATUS VIR QUI SUFFERT TENTATIONEM, QUONIQM CUM PROBATE FUERIT ACCIPIENT CORONAM VITAE.

Ranma concentrated on the fluid motion of the kata. It had been some time since he had been able to relax and lose himself to the Art. Right now he cared about nothing, just went with the flow. Sadly this inner tranquility was not to last as with a crash certain bubbly amazon came through the dojo wall.

"Shampoo miss Airen. Wo ai ni." Shampoo said while she pounced and glomped Ranma. Ranma stiffened immediately.

"Saotome, for seducing my Shampoo you will die!" Mousse jumped inside of the dojo through the hole in the wall. He was wielding a chinese broadsword with sickly green glowing blade. He had gotten it from a woman who had been walking past Nekohanten, and had almost collided with Mousse when he was thrown out of the restaurant door by Shampoo. The woman had picked him up and asked what was the matter. After Mousse had poured all his problems and sorrows to her in a nearby ice-cream café, the woman had proposed a deal. She´d give him a way to deal with Ranma and something to seduce Shampoo, if he would agree to help her sometime in future. Next day she had stopped by to give him the sword and a vial that she said to be a love potion which worked if both parties had a small amount of the liquid almost simultaneously. Mousse had decided to get rid of Ranma first and had followed Shampoo as she had decided her Airen had ´avoided her too too long´.

"Stupid Duckboy no interfere. Shampoo want spend time with Airen." Shampoo retorted and flattened Mousse to the dojo floor with her Bonbori. This of course required letting go of said Airen. Ranma immediately decided to execute a strategic retreat and bolted to the dojo door. No, of course he was not running away. He had just decided to find a better place to fight because Nabiki would kill him if he helped to destroy the dojo, again. Besides, that sword was putting out a rather nauseating aura and he felt instictively that to even touch the blade would hurt, a lot.

"Here are your snacks Ran... Oh my!" Kasumi, who had just arrived and was standing by the door exclaimed, bringing her hand in front of her mouth and staring at the two amazons wide-eyed. It was nothing new to her that they were crashing the dojo but the sword did unnerve her.

Mousse, who had recovered from the bashing in record time, threw the blade straight towards Ranma´s back. Kasumi, who saw this, reacted instantly. She pushed Ranma away from the path of the oncoming weapon. With a sickly crunch the blade impaled her from the shoulder and pinned her against the doorframe. She screamed loudly and slumped against the wall, only the blade keeping her from crumbling to the floor. Everyone in the dojo stared at her prone form for several seconds in total silence, as if Universe itself was holding its breath. Ranma was first to react, violently.

"You bastard! Monster! How could you hurt Kasumi? What has she done to ya? Huh? Answer me!"

Mousse was unable to answer, as a lightning fast punch dislocated his jaw. He tried in vain to protect himself from the fury of his enraged nemesis. Ranma had almost totally lost it and was trying to smash the myopic warrior into an unrecognisable mush with almost feral fervor. There was no need for finesse, taunting or any of the other things that were usually present in his fights. He was methodically disabling his opponents ability to fight, with unmatched speed. Now was the time to punish the dishonorable bastard who had aimed at him but injured an innocent instead. Ribs were bruised and cracked, joints were dislocated and small cuts were appearing all over Mousses abused body. The last thing he saw before unconsciousness claimed him, were Ranmas eyes. Eyes that, for a fraction of a second had become slitted and promised pain eternal.

Just as Ranma decided to finish the punishment by dealing a crippling blow that would have ended Mousses ability to ever fight and hurt innocents, a large mallet struck his head.

"You animal! You killed Kasumi! Die you bastard!" Further outside could be heard a loud "What!" and wailing. Akane had, although understandably considering the situation, once again jumped in wrong conclusion when she saw her big sister slumped against the wall. She decided to kill the murderous bastard that was her fiancee without even checking first if Kasumi actually was dead or alive.

Ranma was thrown away from Mousses battered, barely alive remains by the force of the mallet impact. He landed on a crouch, the hit not eveng fazing him and ignored Akane completely.

"You will pay for hurting her." He snarled and glared at Mousses prone form. Then he released what he thought was a rage fueled version of Moko Takabisha. Unfortunately his subconscious decided to give Mousse a more creative punishment. Both he and Mousse were bathed in soft light for a fraction of second. When it dimmed there was an old battered man in place of battered Mousse and female Ranma where there had been a male Ranma a second ago. Ranma-chan had changed though. In the place of a petite girl was now a young woman who looked like a several years older version of her former self. She was as tall as her male side and had gained more curvaceous figure. Her freely hanging hair now reached all the way down to the floor. Her eyes too had changed. Instead of the brilliant blue-gray their hue was now the deepest purple.

Ranma blinked once, and then her eyes rolled backwards and she collapsed in a heap of clothes and hair.

Akane proceeded to finish her off but was stopped by Shampoo. "No hurt Airen, she no hurt too too nice girl. Stupid Mousse do."

Akane did not listen. Ranma had to die. Shampoo saw no alternatives but to strike the enraged girl down with her fists. As she did so she was immediately attacked by Soun, who was wailing something about murderous Amazons. He too went down with a quick stroke from a bonbori.

When she turned around she saw Nabiki, who was trying to tend Kasumi´s wound. She glared hard at Shampoo and demanded to know exactly what had happened.

"Shampoo want see Airen and come to greet. Stupid Duckboy follow. Then Duckboy throw sword at airen but too too nice girl take blow instead of Airen. Airen go mad. Try kill Mousse. Pervert Moneygrubber see rest." Shampoo answered. "How Airen change to girl type or Mousse age Shampoo not know."

Sigh "Okay Shampoo, Kasumi needs a doctor and looks like Mousse and Ranma too. I´ll go call her. Stay here."

"Shampoo stay and guard."

KYRIE, IGNIS DIVINE, ELEISON.

Not too long afterwards the new family doctor, who had replaced dr. Tofu, arrived with two nurses. He was greeted at door by Genma, who started wailing and blabbing about saving the cook of the house. The doctor, irritated by Genma´s behaviour merely pressed a point in Genma´s back and left him there standing like a salt-statue, mouth opened in middle of a word. They thenproceeded to the dojo and checked everyone lying there starting from Kasumi, and gave first aid when needed. Finally he turned to anxious looking Nabiki and Shampoo.

"This wound is bad. I managed to stabilize her but she needs a blood replacement and I need to monitor her for a while and analyze that sword so that we got no nasty suprises. If not, there should be no problems and Kasumi-san should regain full usage of her hand eventually."

"Thank kamis." Nabiki sighed in relief.

"The young lady over there will need some monitoring too because of the disarray in her Ki - paths." She pointed at Ranma. "Most of all I am concerned about the old man. It looks like some sort of animal had attacked him. Could I get an explanation what exactly happened here."

Shampoo related the story again.

"So, this old man is actually a teenager. Interesting. In any case I need to get him quickly to the clinic."

"Do whatever you want. That bastard almost killed my sister. I would be happy if he died." Nabiki said angrily.

"Don´t judge so readily young woman. After all, he may still have a change to repent. Should he die then there is no change for that." The doctor sternly said to nabiki while he prepared his three new patients to be transferred to the clinic.

Nabiki merely hmphed and went to check on Akane.

"There is no need to worry about your younger sister or father, Nabiki-san. They will regain consciousness soon and have only couple of bruises and a mild concussion. Also, the idiot in the porch will be able to move in about twenty four hours." The Doctor informed her.

"What did you do to Uncle Saotome?" Nabiki asked.

"Nothing much. He was just being annoying and disruptive and my day so far has not been one of the best, so I applied a paralysis pressure point on him. He´ll come out of it in twenty four hours as I said. Now however, please excuse us. You are naturally welcome to visit my patients after they regain consciousness." He said and left after his patients.

O QUAM SANCTA, QUAM SERENA, QUAM BENIGMA, QUAM AMOENA. O CASTITATIS LILIUM.

Zef stood up and stretched. He had been sitting in front of his computer, editing the next episode of Nerima Jackass for a while now and decided he needed a little breather. Shower sounded like a nice idea and then perhaps some snack and TV. The life of Demon of Media was not bad. Especially here, as the local crazies provided all sort of entertainment as long as you understood to stay far enough. Nybbas, the Prince of Media, had assigned their team in Nerima after a hint from Kobal, and they had been filming the antics of the various martial artists and other weirdos for over a year now. The show had become incredibly popular in the movie-theaters of Shal-Mari and Perdition, and if it continued to be as popular in the future, it would mean lots and lots of influence and rising in the ranks for all of the three Demons of the Media in the team.

Just as Zef had gotten out of the shower and was trying to decide what to have for snack from various TV-meals and other such stuff, the phone rang. There was the fourth member of their team. Gebby, Habbalah of Dark Humor who often had crazy, although working ideas. More than once or twice he had been the driving force behind the chaos in Nerima, by telling Ranma´s address to some new fiancée or rival or causing some other mischief that usually escalated hilariously. More often though the humans had caused the messes themselves.

"Yeah? This better be good." Zef was never happy when his private time was interrupted.

"It´s me. Got a new prank and had to inform you right away before the opportunity passes. I got a friend we can recruit for a while. She´s passing by and its just too funny gag to pass."

"Why didn´t you call Shina. She´s the one in charge of the material for the show."

"Shina´s a bitch. I´m not going to be in any contact with her if I can avoid it and you know it."

"Hm. Ok I´ll talk with her _if_this is good enough."

"Good, now I was thinking something like this..."

TRANSIRE SUUM PECTUS EGOQUE POTIRI, FIAT CHAOS.

Now it was official. Jahaziel´s day sucked, big time. First, the aftermath of day before. The e-mail from Jean had not helped matters. Actually, it was a miracle that any of the three servitors of Lightning hadn´t been called back upstairs or that Jean hadn´t dropped a lightning bolt or two on their heads. The Archangel had been irritated, and only the fact that they had managed to actually get the Impudite and her information had saved their asses from any kind of retribution. The information itself was bit disturbing though.

Second, there was a new mess. There was a Lilim around somewhere brewing trouble. Already she had almost nearly managed to kill several people. Jahaziel glanced at the sleeping trio in the beds of the patient room. He had already healed all of them with a Song, and had spent rest of the evening examining the sword with the assistance of the two Mercurians. It was a nasty piece of Infernal craftmanship. Whoever who had no above average willpower and was hit with the sword risked the destruction of his or her soul, as it did Celestial damage and thus was capable of ripping forces off of ones soul. Fortunately, the eldest Tendo-sister was suprisingly strong willed person and thus was not in danger anymore. It had been a close call though.

Third, the Mercurians had raided his whisky-cabinet and thus he had only one bottle left. He looked forlornly at the half empty bottle and filled his glass. He needed to refill his Essence reserves, and drinking whisky was a Rite granted by Eli that helped him to get more Essence. And those damn brats had stolen almost all his whisky! He grumbled, gulped the glass empty in one swing and refilled it. Just then the outer door of the clinic was opened and Alael stepped, in still in her school nurses uniform.

"Low on Scotch? I´ll give you some more if you help me refill my Essence." Alael winked at the Seraph suggestively, took one of the empty bottles from the cabinet, filled it with water and transmuted the water to prime-quality scotch whisky. "So how about it?"

"Sure." Jahaziel answered, after which Alael dragged him in an empty room for several hours of wild lovemaking.

AMARE ET SAPERE VIX DEO CONCEDITUR.

Elsewhere Merhtal was sweating buckets and standing in attention. Eli had led him to a nice looking neighbourhood and into a sizable house. After greeting the adult occupants of the house and spoiling their little daughter with candies that popped out of nowhere, he had left Merhtal facing an ancient Malakim of Creation.

"Honey. Could you keep ´Taru-chan out of the backyard for a while. I think I need to have a little chat with Merry here." The man said.

"Very vell, Ame-chan. Come on Hotaru-chan. Lets watch a cartoon." The woman said and left to the living room.

"Yay, cartoons." The girl almost broke the sound barrier while running to the living room.

"Now, then. It seems you need some disclipine training." Amesoton turned to Merhtal and grinned nastily.

"Yay, training. " Merhtal said unenthusiastically and followed his host to the backyard. This would hurt.

VIGILANDO, AGENDO, BENE CONSULENDO, PROSPERA OMNIA CEDUNT.

Ranma awoke to a hollow feeling in her gut. That, however, was instantly forgotten when she remembered the fight at the dojo. She sat up, glanced around and saw Kasumi sleeping in another bed. In yet another bed, was sleeping an old, familiar looking man whom Ranma felt she should kick hard for some reason.

"Ah, Saotome-san. You´re awake." Ranma´s attention instantly snapped to the source of the voice and she found the new family doctor sitting at his desk. Unlike normally, when he was the model of perfect dressing, the man now looked quite disheveled. He had several buttons unbuttoned, the tie hanged loosely and his hair was messy. He had been writing something with his laptop, but had turned around and was now staring at Ranma with an interest. "Any aches? Or weird feelings?"

"Um, no Doc. Can I have some hot water."

"Whateverfor young woman?" Jahaziel raised an eyebrow and feigned ignorance.

"You know perfectly well why Doc. Now do I hafta beat someone up to get that water?" Ranma was getting bad vibes from this situation. Although rather dull when compared to Tofu the new doc had been reliable thus far. Him getting weird was the last thing Ranma needed now.

"No need for that Ranma. I´ll get the water though it will not be any use." Jahaziel said, stood up and started to straighten his suit.

"Whaddya mean Doc?" More bad vibes. Very bad vibes.

"I already conducted some tests, and it seems your female form is currently overriding the male one." Jahaziel answered.

"Huh?"

"You are stuck in that form for time being. I´ll try to find a way to get the curse unlocked, but it can take some time."

Ranma bolted up absolute horror printed in her face."NOOOO, ain´t true, ain´t true, ain´t true."

"Shh, be quiet Ranma. You may wake up the other patients and they both need rest now. I´m afraid it´s true that you can not change back for now."

Ranma fell silent. "She´s gonna be okay? Kasumi I mean." She then asked silently while looking at the sleeping girl.

"Yes, if her wound can heal without disturbances. She needs to rest." Ranma couldn´t explain it, but she felt clearly that Doc wanted badly for Kasumi to get better.

´Crap. Another Doc with Kasumi-syndrome.´She thought.

Another desire. He wanted to get back at Hinako-sensei and some other woman for stealing his whiskey.

"Um, doc. I wouldn´t pull a prank on Hinako-sensei. She can get mad and..." Ranma found herself lifted from the ground as the somewhat taller doctor had grabbed the front of her shirt.

"How. Did. You. Know. That." He was quite furious. Only Lilim would know such things with a mere glance.

"I dunno, Doc. It just popped in my mind that you wanna get back at Hinako-sensei and some other chick for stealing yer booze. Please let me go?" Ranma was now trying to figure out the fastest route to escape the madman before he did something nasty.

The truth. Jahaziel felt it. The young woman wasn´t a Lilim. How could she know then. He sighed and let go of Ranma.

"Ranma, do me a favor and go back to bed. It´s a middle of night."

"Ok, doc. But ye´ll owe me." Ranma had no clue why she had said that but it fit the situation somehow. Then she went to her bed and soon fell asleep.

Jahaziel flinched. She had somehow managed to geashook him. It was luckily just a minor Geas but still, if Jean found out...

Not good. Not good at all. Better get plastered.

QUI DEDIT BENIFICIUM TACEAT; NARRET QUI ACCEPIT.

Gebby was sitting in a local bar next to a man with long black hair and bushy mustaches. Said man was soundly drunk and had been wailing something about his firstborn. This was rather usual behaviour for the guy so Gebby did not pay much attention to him. Instead he was wondering where the bald guy was. That man was just a pure genius when it came to all sorts of underhanded behaviour, and Gebby had started to suspect that the guy was a Demon of Theft or Greed in disguise.

In any case, it was odd that the guy was missing. After asking about this from his overly emotional companion he laughed. So, Genma was irritating doctors now? It sounded funny enough to be worth of a picture. Too bad. Perhaps that Nabiki-girl had some.

Then he found out it would have been a good idea not to laugh out loud as his drinking buddy suddenly used that ridiculous "demon head"-technigue and attacked him with his fists.

Gebby took a calm expression and started talking with a soothing voice. He also used his Resonance to instill sadness instead of anger into the other man´s head. "Relax, Soun. I didn´t laugh at your daughter. I laughed at Genma. He´s such an idiot sometimes, Right? I´m sorry about Kasumi. Really!"

´Yeah, right. Couldn´t care less. Perhaps if she´s permanently gone I can add to the chaos a bit. I would need something to keep Soun afloat in that case though. Without both him and Genma this can fall apart too easily. She´s a major babe though. Yeah, I´ll alter the plan a bit.´ Nobody said Gebby was a nice guy.

Soun reacted to Gebby´s words by hugging Gebby and wailing some more.

Gebby merely patted Soun´s shoulder and disentagled himself. Then he bought another round of Sake for himself and Soun, produced an official looking document out of nowhere and changed couple of names in it. "Ranma Saotome" was changed to "Kasumi Tendo", "Genma Saotome" to "Soun Tendo" and Genma´s signature was wiped off.

"Hey Soun, could you sign this for me? I´ll go pay the drinks but bartender said that if I were to pay for both of us I needed your signature." The lie was rather pathetic but Gebby knew Soun would buy it even less drunk than he now was and besides it was just funny how easy he and Genma were to trick.

"Oh, okay." Soun slurred, took the pen Gebby was offering and signed the paper which Gebby then hastily put back to the dimensional pocket where it had come from. Gebby feeling jovial paid the bill, got yet another round of Sake and watched in amusement as Soun almost collapsed from his seat.

Gebby smiled slightly. "Ok, pal. I think you have had enough sake for the night. I´ll drag you home."

"Wahhhh. You´re a true friend," Soun wailed while Gebby led him out of the bar.

"That I am." Soun completely missed Gebby´s nasty smirk.

COGITO SUMERE POTUM ALTERUM.

The next morning found Soun sleeping in front of the front door of the Tendos. Because the door had been locked, Gebby had decided just to dump Soun there, and had continued on to his own apartment thinking he would be just fine like that.

The first rays of the rising sun hitting his eyes stirred the Tendo patriarch. He murmured a bit and turned around only to find himself in uncomfortable position. After shifting himself several times he finally did find a comfortable position, but was awakened by a sneezing fit only seconds later. He sat up, leaned against the wall and yawned. Then the aftereffects of last nights drinking hit him with merciless force. He was forced to empty the contents of his stomach with post haste as a huge wave of nausea hit him.

An elegant woman in kimono witnessed this. "Soun-kun. That is absolutely disgusting. You really should cut your drinking."

"No-Nodoka-san? W-What are you doing here this early in the morning?"

"Oh, I could´t sleep so I decided to take a walk. My legs decided to carry me here, I guess. When I found myself in the neighborhood I figured out that Kasumi-chan would be up already so it wouldn´t hurt to visit you."

"Wahhhh, Kasumi! My baby girl!"

"What is going on Soun? Has something happened to Kasumi?"

She was answered only with incoherent wailing.

QUID RIDES? MUTATO NOMINE DE TE FABULA NARRATUR.

Splash Soun found himself in the koi-pond where Nodoka had dragged and tossed him.

Nodoka was not amused at all. "Now, Soun, stop acting like a child and tell me what is going on with Kasumi."

Soun stood up spluttering, but before he had time to say anything the patio door was opened and very irate and disheveled Nabiki glared at the two adults.

"And I was hoping that I would be allowed to sleep bit later today but no. Of course when Ranma and Genma are not able to cause racket you two must start it."

Nodoka decided not to care about the girls obvious angriness. "Good morning, Nabiki-chan. How are things here? If I understood your father right something has happened to Kasumi-chan. How is she? And why my husband is imitating a grotesgue statue in the porch?"

Nabiki´s irritated frown turned into a downright angry scowl. "It was those damnable amazons. Shampoo showed up when Ranma was practicing yesterday. Mousse came after her and threw a sword towards Ranma. Unfortunately my big sister ended up in its path and got her shoulder punctured. She´s at the Doc´s right now."

"Oh my God. Will she be okay?"

"Yeah, Doc said she should heal fully given enough time."

"Thank goodness. How about my son? I presume he did not take well that attack."

"Definitely not. He trashed Mousse quite badly but, um, there were some complications and she´s at Doc´s too."

"WHAT?"

Nabiki then related the course of the battle to Nodoka who decided immediately go and check Ranma to confirm Nabiki´s story. Genma, forgotten, remained standing in the porch.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N

Explanations:

Resonance: Each Choir and Band has an unique way to influence the Symphony around them. Angelic Resonances are usually passive ways to gather various information while Demons can actively manipulate things and people. Vague descriptions are given in the prologue author note.

Major factions of the In Nomine universe:

Archangels:

Blandine - Cherub Archangel of Dreams.

She watches over the portion of Marches that is closest to Heaven. Her angels are tasked to try to keep the dreams of humans bright and hopeful.

David - Malakite Archangel of Stone.

Old as stone, slow as stone, loyal, unforgiving. He thrives to strenghten humanity to stand on its own, though his methods are rather cruel for an angel.

Dominic - Seraph Archangel of Judgement.

The head of Divine Iquisition and the keeper of the order in the Heaven. He is harsh and untolerant but never unjust. He is rumored to cooperate with Asmodeus (see below) on occasion.

Eli - Mercurian Archangel of Creation.

The artist and lifegiver, perhaps one of the most powerful entities in existence. During 1950´ies he decided to descend to Earth and has been seen or heard rarely ever since. Nobody knows what he is doing and why.

Gabriel - Ofanite Archangel of Fire.

The Heavenly Prophet. Bringer of inspiration and punisher of the cruel. Gabriel has been for centuries very unstable and often behaves very irrationably which greatly worries her peers. Because of an argument with Dominic about the birth of Islam she and her followers exiled themselves from Heaven and live just outside of it.

Jean - Elohite Archangel of Lightning.

Supporter and developer of technology. He is in charge of deciding what technological secrets can be revealed to mankind and when. Of course men have occasionally developed things on their own and Jean approves this better than handing down things to them.

Jordi - Kyriorate Archangel of Animals.

Jordi does not like humans, not at all. If he could decide all those upstart apes would be wiped out to give rest of the animals room to be. He is a firm supporter of the law of the jungle.

Laurence - Malakite Archangel of Sword.

Commander of the armies of Heaven and the ultimate paladin. He is honor personified and total perfectionist. He expects his orders to be carried to the word and all kind of improvising is frowned upon.

Marc - Mercurian Archangel of Trade.

The divine diplomat. He is willing to make a fair, honest deal with anyone and often mediates between other Archangels and occasionally even deals with certain Demon Princes or Princesses.

Michael - Seraph Archangel of War.

The first angel and the personification of struggle and competition. He is the most powerful of the angels and once defeated Lucifer in personal combat before kicking him out of Heaven.

Novalis - Cherub Archangel of Flowers.

The heavenly hippie. Novalis is most peaceful of the Archangels and outright abhors violence. Her kindness knows no bounds as she is ready to forgive and feel sorry for Angels and Demons alike.

Uriel - Malakite Archangel of Purity

The commander of the forces of Heaven before Laurence. He mounted a campaign called the Purity Crusade to wipe all creatures of myth (dragons, fairies etc.) from Earth and Marches between 715-745 AD. In 745 he was called to Higher Heavens by God leaving his troops in disarray and the Crusade halfway as India, China, Japan and most of the Marches were spared. He has not been heard since.

Yves - Archangel of Destiny

Oldest of the celestial beings the one who named God, good, evil and all other things. Nobody really knows who and what he is. His task is to bring all of Creation to realize its bright destiny thus bringing it closer to the God.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Demon Princes:

Andrealphus - Impudite Prince of Lust

Former Angel of Love, perverted to the point where nothing else but one´s own selfish pleasures matter. He approves all sorts of perversions, no matter how depraved, as long as they bring pleasure.

Asmodeus - Djinn Prince of Game.

The head of the Secret Police of hell whose job is to keep other Princes in leash. He is cold, calculating and takes no excuses. He plays by his own rules which he will change if need be so that everyone else will be kept on their toes. He does cooperate with Dominic when necessary.

Baal - Balseraph Prince of War

The leader of the armies of Hell and one of the first angels to rebel against God and become Demon. He keeps his underlings in iron grip and all sort of dissent will be dealt quickly.

Beleth - Djinn Princess of Nightmares.

The dark reflection of Blandine. She hates humans and terrorizes them by bringing all sorts of horrors in their dreams by night or fear, mistrust and hatred by day. She thinks almost all other Princes as too soft.

Belial - Calabite Prince of Fire.

The manifestation of the destructive side of the Fire who revels in acts of destruction, bigger the boom the better. He and Gabriel are bitter enemies.

Haagenti - Calabite Prince of Gluttony.

Everhungry monstrous ball of fur that had to fight its way through every step of the hierarchy of Hell. He devoured several princes with the help of Kobal and has ever since been best buddies with him.

Kobal - Impudite Prince of Dark Humor.

Humor and joy are one of the God´s greatest gifts to mankind and Kobal is a master of corrupting and perverting it. He is clever and cruel, leaving behind a trail of destroyed hopes, relationships and friendships.

Kronos - Balseraph Prince of Fate.

Most powerfull of the Princes of Hell. He is bound to drag everything in creation downt to the Pit to meet its Dark Fate.

Malphas - Shedite Prince of Factions.

Malphas realizes that every being ultimately is alone, unable to truly reach to others. He wishes to share this with everyone and seeks to sow as much seeds of discord as possible. His main playing arena besides of Earth is Hell where he has managed to stir much distrust.

Nybbas - Impudite Prince of Media.

Newest of the Major Princes. Rising star who gains more and more power every day as the power of the worldwide media grows. He has already ensnared most of Western civilization to consume all sorts of mass entertainment.

Saminga - Shedite Prince of Death.

The creator of the undead who wants everything dead. Saminga is an idiot. Powerful idiot. He has managed to convince himself that he is the ultimate evil and all other Demons are beneath him. Lucifer finds him mildly amusing and very easy to manipulate.

Valefor - Calabite Prince of Theft.

Nothing is safe from him or his minions. Not even dreams or hopes. His minions have put mortal society under tremendous strain by encouraging people to challenge the rules of the ownership.

Vapula - Habbalite Prince of Technology.

The definition of mad scientist. He is constantly experimenting something or building some sort of gadget that rarely works just as intended and even if works has weird side effects.

Lilith - Princess of Freedom

Mother of the Lilim and only human to rise to the status of Prince, Princess or Archangel. She hates to be bound in anything and thus keeps no permanent servants. If you want something she is more than happy to help -for a price.

There are several other, less powerful or deceased Archangels and Demon Princes. If they are mentioned in text they are also explained there.


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: All copyrighted material is property of their respective owners. I own nothing. This work is merely to show my appreciation to the original creators.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The town was just beginning to wake up as Nodoka made her way to the clinic. Her mood was alternating between deep worry and barely controlled rage. Her baby boy was hurt, and that chinese fool had injured a bystander. This had to stop. She was so focused on making her way to the clinic as fast as possible that she failed to notice another early traveller and evaded colliding with her by mere inches.

"Good morning Saotome-san. Judging by our haste I take it you heard what happened yesterday." Cologne adjusted her speed to that of the other woman and pogoed forward next to her.

Nodoka eyed the diminutive amazon warily. "Good morning, elder. I did indeed hear it just moments ago. May I ask your part in this? I hope you have nothing to do with the attack because if you do..."

"Be at ease, Saotome-san. I swear neither me nor Xian Pu had anything to do with Mu Tsu´s actions. We wouldn´t gain anything from killing your son at the moment, and Mu Tsu dishonored our tribe by attacking so carelessly that the eldest Tendo daughter got injured. Please let me deal with him first, and then I will let his fate in your hands."

Nodoka relaxed a bit. "Very well, Elder. I will let you deal with him first. Forgive my harsh words."

"No harm done, child. I know how you feel right now as I too have been a mother. Rest assured, Ranma will be fine. That boy has a knack to beat amazing odds, and I am sure this time is no different."

"I hope so Elder."

o KYRIE, IGNIS DIVINE, ELEISON. o

The two women reached the clinic in short time and found it already open. As they stepped inside they were greeted by sight of Ranma pestering the poor doctor about her current gender.

"Awww Doc, I wanna be man again." Ranma tried in vain to affect the doctor with puppy-eyes and pouting, as shouting and threats seemed to have no effect at all.

"I already told you several times, Ranma. I cannot help you now. You just need to wait a while longer till I get the final results and then I´ll try contact someone who may be able to help. Besides, you are a beautiful woman. Why the rush to change?" Miraculously, Jahaziel managed to keep a straight face.

"AAARGH!" Ranma replied eloquently.

Nodoka decided to interrupt the conversation."Ranma! You´re all right? I´m so relieved."

Ranma spun around and almost tackled her mother to the ground by hugging her. "Mom! You´re here!"

Nodoka returned the hug fiercely, relieved that her child seemed to be alright.

Then Ranma noticed Cologne and her expression darkened a bit. "Oh, hello Old Ghoul."

Her choice of words earned a frown and a light whack from her mother. "Ranma, mind your manners. Elder Cologne does not have anything to do with Mousse´s actions."

Cologne merely hmphed. "That is correct son-in-law. We both know that Mu Tsu does not respect my authority much. I´ve overlooked it thus far, but now he has gone too far. I will punish him and then leave it for you or the Tendos to deal with him however you see fit. There´s another matter to solve before though. I heard from Xian Pu that Mu Tsu did grow old because of something you did to him, and changed yourself at the same time. I can now see that at least you have changed. Did I hear correctly that you are locked in your cursed form?"

"That is correct Elder. The reason why and how this happened is unfortunately still unclear, but I am sure that we will know better when my medical computer has finished analyzing all the scans and samples I took." Jahaziel answered to Ranma and pointed at the humming machine next to his desk.

Cologne wasn´t convinced. "Hmph, technology. This is obviously a magical phenomenom. Your gadgets may be helpful in normal medical situations but when it comes to magic they are useless." She gestured at the various hi-tech machines around the office.

"With all respect, Elder, you are mistaken. Ranma, could you please step again on the scanner."

"Sure, Doc, if it helps me get my original body back." Ranma moved on top of a large black tile connected to the medical computer by several cables.

"Very good, now observe carefully." Jahaziel then sat down and keyed several commands in his laptop and turned it around so the others could see the screen. On it was a video-image of Ranma standing at the scanner.

"This state-of-the-art scanner can detect various forms of energy including Ki and even "magic" as you call the energy in question. Here, let me show you Ranma´s Ki-signature." He keyed the keyboard a bit and the image of Ranma was bathed in faint bluish aura.

"Now if we take the backround away the image should be much clearer. " Ranma vanished from the screen and only her Ki-aura was left there.

"Please, Elder, could you compare the aura on the screen at her aura as your senses can perceive it."

"Incredible, they match exactly." Cologne was astonished. Normally it would take years of hard work to become capable of reading Ki with any accuracy, and here was a machine capable of doing the same.

"Indeed. You are watcing the future of medicine. To remain in the subject, though, you can see that right now Ranma´s Ki is just fine. When she was brought here yesterday the situation was completely different. Here is her recorded Ki-signature." New image popped next to the one showing current situation. The aura in it was barely visible and alternating between normal-looking and somewhat warped and distorted.

"That can´t be. She shouldn´t have been alive with so little Ki."

"I agree if it was the only thing that was in effect. Look at this." The Ki-halo was replaced with similar bright white halo which periodically changed to muddy red and back to white.

Nodoka gasped. "What, what does that mean?"

Cologne´s eyes almost bugged out. "That is an astral magic aura! And it is alternating between good and evil magic. Has son-in-law turned into some sort of spirit?"

Jahaziel shaked his head. "No. Current scan shows only residual remains of this so called astral energy, which is perfectly normal for all humans as far as I know. These auras are currently under analysis but I´m afraid I do not have anything accurate for several days yet."

Ranma perked at this. "Ya mean I must be stuck like this for DAYS?"

"I´m afraid so. Believe me, I am doing all I can."

"But..."

"Ranma," Her mother interrupted smiling gently. "You just need to endure this. I am sure there is a solution."

"I..." Ranma´s shoulders slumped as she started to feel more and more depressed.

"Oh, my baby." Nodoka took Ranma in tight hug.

"Perhaps we should go and check the other patients." Jahaziel said to lead others´ thoughts away from the current topic.

o O QUAM SANCTA, QUAM SERENA, QUAM BENIGMA, QUAM AMOENA. O CASTITATIS LILIUM o

As they opened the infirmary door, they found Kasumi awaken and sitting on her bed, looking rather sleepy. Mousse was sleeping sedated sleep in the back of the room.

"Kasumi-san! You shouldn´t be straining yourself now. At least refrain from moving too much since you will be staying here at least until tomorrow morning." Jahaziel moved to check her bandages.

"Very well J-san. I just hope I could go back taking care of my family soon enough."

"Kasumi-chan, its ya who´s needing being taken care of. Please relax." Ranma was not going to let Kasumi injure herself further.

"I agree, Kasumi-chan. I can take care of the housework while you are recovering. Don´t worry about it." Nodoka said.

"Thank you Auntie. I was afraid that the household would fall in disarray without me there but I am sure you can take good care of it." Kasumi replied, smiling slightly.

"Please accept my apologies for what Mu Tsu did to you, Tendo-san." Cologne bowed slightly to Kasumi.

"No need for apologizing, elder. It was partially my fault anyway as I jumped in the way."

"Still Mu Tsu did an unforgivable mistake. I must punish him as per our laws. Could you wake him up doctor?"

"What are you going to do to him?" Jahaziel asked.

"I am going to expel him from the tribe permanently. He would need bit harsher punishment, like dipping him in another Jusenkyo-spring and locking the curse, but I think being old, weak and expelled from the tribe is sufficient." Cologne answered.

"Very well. I´ll wake him up as long as you are not going to physically harm him."

Jahaziel then put some stimulant in the IV that Mousse had. He regained consciousness in couple of minutes.

"Mu Tsu. Do you hear me?" Cologne asked him as soon as he seemed coherent enough.

"Yeah, I heard you, you shriveled up old monkey." Then he glanced at Ranma and Kasumi, barely recognicing their forms. "So it wasnt a dream. I really hurt Kasumi-san. And you turned me old," he continued examining his shriveled hand. "How?"

"No clue. Why did ya hafta do it anyway, Mousse. I can forgive ya anything else but not harming non-combatants. Especially Kasumi." At this point Ranma was giving a deathglare to Mousse.

"Do you think I would do such a thing purposedly. I..."

"Enough! Because of your dishonorable actions I have now a valid reason to do what I have wanted to do for a long time. You, Mu Tsu, formerly of the Joketsuzoku amazons, are casted out. Never again disgrace us with your presence or you will be killed." Cologne interrupted him. After her declaration she hopped towards the door and pogoed back to Cat Café to inform her great-granddaughter of her decision. Mousse was left staring forward, stunned.

Nodoka was first to act. She glared at Mousse icily. "Very well. Now as elder Cologne has dealt with you it is my turn. Mousse, if you attack my child again I swear I will hunt you down myself. That promise will also hold if I hear you attacking innocent bystanders again. I would have killed you now, were it not your condition. It is a punishment enough. Come, Ranma, we will be leaving now. Or are there any reasons for her to stay longer, Doctor?" She grabbed Ranma´s hand and pulled her towards the door before the younger woman could react.

"She can leave, Saotome-san. I must insist, however, that she come tomorrow for a final check," Jahaziel stated calmly. He didn´t like the situation at all. The humans could be so stupid or petty sometimes. Granted, Mousse had done a rather big mistake but in his opinion the reactions had been rather extreme. He silently thanked God for not being of the Choir of Elohim, because remaining objective in a place like this would have been totally impossible, and thus any of their kind would Fall within a day in this nuthouse. He sighed a bit, and silently watched the boy-turned-oldtimer trying to decide what to do. Perhaps he should call one of the Mercurians to deal with this, seeing that they were the Angels who understood mankind the most.

"If, if it helps any, Mousse-san, I forgive you." Kasumi softly said. She was not one to hold grudges, and seeing the chinese martial artist in such a condition saddened her.

Kasumi´s words snapped Mousse back in the real world. He stared at her for a moment and then started to weep silently as he had no energy left for anything else.

Kasumi carefully rose from her bed and sat next to Mousse on his bed, encircling his shoulders with her good hand.

o TRANSIRE SUUM PECTUS EGOQUE POTIRI, FIAT CHAOS. o

A tall, slightly tanned woman watched Nodoka and Ranma hurry towards the Tendo home, carefully keeping herself out of their sight. She had couple of words to exchange with certain ex-Amazon, and the sooner she was done with it the better. After adjusting her long dark hair a bit she stepped back to the street and made her way towards the clinic.

Seeing the clinic already open she silently stepped in. She noticed Jahaziel sitting at his desk, completely absorbed in the readings that the medical computer was giving.

"Hello." The woman said softly, bringing Jahaziel´s attention to her.

"Li-Lilith!" Jahaziel stammered. A honest for good (or perhaps honest for evil) demon Princess was standing in the doorway of his clinic. If this wasn´t bad then what was? Better be polite. "How can I help you?"

"Oh, I just have to speak with Mu Tsu a little. I presume he is still in your infirmary?"

"Yes. He is. Anything else I can do for you?"

"Actually, I think there is something I can do for you. If I am not mistaken, that redhaired slip of a girl I saw on my way here Geased you yesterday. I am rather sure that you do not want Jean to find out. I think I can help you to cover it. Of course there is this little thing you can do to me too..."

´Eep´"Ahh, and how can humble me to be of service."

Lilith was obviously amused at his comment. "Oh its just a little thing I am asking. Just keep quiet of my presence here today and give me the sword that Mu Tsu used. In return I keep your dirty little secret and ask about collecting the Geas as something harmless if I have a conversation with the girl. Now, Jaha-chan, what do you say?

Jahaziel was very relieved. If this was all then there was no problem to accept. Naturally, if Jean somehow found out about this he would be deep in trouble, but irritating the Princess currently present would be far more disastrous. The decision was quick. "Deal."

"Ah, it is nice to do business with reasonable people. Perhaps we see each other later Jaha-chan. For now, baibai." Lilith walked to the infirmary. Jahaziel could only pity the poor human who had caught the eye of the Princess of Freedom.

o VIGILANDO, AGENDO, BENE CONSULENDO, PROSPERA OMNIA CEDUNT. o

In the infirmary Lilith carefully examined the startled young woman hugging the target of her interest. "Hello there. Who are you then?"

"Tendo Kasumi. May I ask your name." Somehow Kasumi knew that this woman was incredibly powerful but her demeanor was not hostile, so Kasumi decided to trust her for now.

"People call me Lilith." At this Kasumi´s eyes grew wide. She had heard that name before.

(Actually Kasumi had read of her. If you went and checked what books Kasumi was reading when things were peaceful you´d find some quite esoteric material.)

"Oh, oh my, Lilith-san. It is nice to meet you."

"As it is you, Kasumi-chan. Now, however, could you leave us for I have something to discuss with Mu Tsu here."

"As you wish, Lilith-san." She rose up and made her way to the door. As she was stepping outside Lilith called after her.

"One more thing Kasumi-chan. You can forget me being here, can you? Let us say that I owe you one if you do, okay."

"Very well, Lilith-san." Kasumi replied as she stepped outside and closed the door.

"Now then, Mu Tsu, I think there are several things we need to discuss."Lilith adopted somewhat colder tone after turning to the ex-Amazon.

"Who are you." Kasumi had managed to calm Mousse down slightly, but he still was rather distraught, and was merely expecting this to be another person mad at him. Perhaps she would be kind enough to end his worthless existence. Xian Pu would definitely do it, but he didn´t want to see her as she would only truly hate him now, not just think him as an irritating pest like before.

"Someone who disapproves your actions against certain pigtailed martial artist." Lilith calmly responded.

"Only my actions? Saotome has propably dozens of people after his blood."

"Perhaps, but you are the only person who has had a change to kill or seduce her with direct Celestial help."

"Celestial? From heaven?

"Correct, although Celestial means also things from Hell."

"That´s ridiculous. The old mummy surely has some divine artefacts, and the old lech has summoned many demons against him. What about Saffron or Herb. Surely you have heard of them."

"Oh, yes, Happosai. No, that fool of a sorcerer has not enough power to summon a Demon capable of hurting Ranma-chan. And what comes to the old Amazon, she does have some trinkets, but none of them are too powerful even though she would like to believe otherwise. Hasn´t Ranma-chan thus far resisted them all?

Mousse remained silent. Who was this woman and what was her connection to Saotome?

As Mousse contemplated this, Lilith continued to speak.

"No, you are the only person who recently had had enough power to seriously hurt or even kill Ranma-chan. That overgrown bird Saffron Ranma-chan dealt herself, and so did she deal with herb. They were there for testing her even if they didn´t know that themselves. You however did almost mess with my plans and so I think you owe me for that." Lilith narrowed her eyes and glared at Mousse. Mousse glared back.

"What could I do for you. I am no-one, almost crippled and blind as bat." He bitterly admitted.

"Oh, I can cure all those little inconveniences. Besides, your actions recently sealed your Fate. You are going straight to Hell when you die and I think you do not want to make aquaintances with Malphas."

"Malphas?" Although he was ready to die and almost thought himself deserving Hell Mousse didn´t like the way Lilith said that name,

"Yes. Malphas, Demon Prince of Factions. Your actions have earned you an afterlife in Stygia, his Principality. It is desolate and infinite series of caverns where one can lose himself forever with only cold wind as his company. Or if you are unlucky you find someone else."

"Who are you? How do you know of such things?"

"Dangerous questions, Mu Tsu, very, very dangerous. I will answer but only if you are willing to pay for the answers. For now I will tell you only that I am someone who can save you from Stygia, and Malphas. You are still Hellbound but if you do what I want, your existence there will become at least bearable."

"You are a Demon!"

"Perhaps. So how is it. Will you admit you owe me and do as I say, or are we done here and I leave you to your Fate?"

At this point Mousse resigned. He was going to Hell. He just knew it. If this woman was a demoness and willing to bargain, then he would do it. The other option she had described didn´t sound too nice.

"Very well. What do you want from me?"

"All sorts of things. You will become my Soldier here on Earth. Do as I command you to do. When and if you die, I have similar uses for you in Hell. When I do not need you, you have relative freedom to exist as you wish, as long as you do not cross my orders or go against my Word."

"Word?" Mousse had actually become interested at this point. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain as it seemed. He wanted to know more, as he had recently learned too well the wisdom of not jumping headfirst.

"The concept and element in all that exists that I represent. Mine is Freedom. Freedom to do as you please, Freedom to choose."

"That doesn´t sound so evil. Are you demon or not?"

"Is that really so important? I am who I am and if you accept my offer I will help you gain your freedom of choice, eventually. Freedom to have a new chance. Now you have nothing, and if you reject me and die, then you have less than nothing. Think about it."

Mousse was silent for a while, thinking carefully all that was said. She was right, he finally decided.

"Very well. I owe you as you said. What do you command, Mistress."

"Now, now Mu-chan. Just call me Lilith. Now, perhaps we do something to your physical body so you can be useful to me."

Lilith raised her hand to Mousse´s forehead and sang couple short verses which he didn´t catch, it was like they purposedly evaded his ears. He started to grow younger rapidly, and soon was back to his former age and strength. Also, for the first time in his life he now saw clearly and actually very sharply without any sort of aid. He glanced at Lilith, bowed slightly to show his gratefullness and stretched as he was feeling very sore.

"Now then, I will make you as my Soldier. A Soldier of Freedom." She cupped her hands in front of herself and a softly glowing ball of energy appeared.

"What is that?" Mousse asked curiously.

"This is the boon usually given to all Soldiers, no matter if they served Heaven or Hell. Even though you already are more powerful than normal humans this will strengthen you still. I chose it so that your will and ability to perceive world around you will be strengthened as they are perhaps your weakest points, at least the ability to perceive things. With this, you will become more aware of the Symphony, the framework of all. From now on you can set your will to achieve things that you could never before do. Some would say you gain the talent of magic, but it is not it. What people call magic is just a crude form of awareness of the true form of the existence and means to its manipulation. Those means, the Songs, I know many. Even some forgotten by almost everyone else. I can teach them to you if you pay for them. We will discuss the payment every time separately as some of the songs are very useful and others just amusing or ornate. Take it." She offered the glowing ball to Mousse who took it with a little hesitation.

"It´s warm, but feels different from Ki." He observed. "What exactly I do with it."

"Press it against your body."

Mousse pressed the ball of energy against his chest and it dissolved almost instantly all around his body. He felt more confindent, more aware. And then he heard it. At first a faint whisper, growing louder and louder as seconds passed. Finally he heard a booming melody that was strengthened or mirrored from all objects around him, yet it didn´t drown normal sounds at all. The feeling was weird but he now felt more alive than ever before.

"Now you hear the full Symphony as God intended it. Humans and Angels are capable of hearing it like that. For Demons it is different. They hear their own Melodies, their parts of the whole and only faint whisper of all else. The whole Symphony is painful to Demon for several reasons which I perhaps tell you later. Now, listen." Lilith incinerated couple of small objects around the infirmary and as each object was destroyed Mousse heard a tiny dissonant note in the Symphony, barely audible.

"Bigger the object, bigger the disturbance. Hurting or even killing living beings creates the most disturbance. Keep this in mind as this way others who can hear Symphony, Angels, Demons and many mortals, will also know that you are doing something out of the ordinary, and perhaps even recognize the exact action. Animals and non-aware people are part of the Symphony and do not create any disturbance even if they kill something, so this way it is easy to spot beings capable of perceiving Symphony, your possible allies or enemies. It goes without saying that the less disturbance you create, the better."

"This is incredible. I never could have even imagined this..."

Lilith merely smirked at him."All right then. That was your first free lesson. There are only one or two more and after that I expect you to pay a suitable price for everything I must give to you, were it information, resources or anything else. That was your second lesson. Now we should go."

"You know, Lilith-sama, you sound like Tendo Nabiki." Mousse shuddered a little after saying that. The thought what Nabiki may be...

"Oh, that little girl. She is an amateur, but holds a great promise. If only she wasn´t so greedy at times she would be far better in this."

o QUI DEDIT BENIFICIUM TACEAT; NARRET QUI ACCEPIT. o

Jahaziel and Kasumi looked warily at Lilith and Mousse as they walked out of the clinic. As she walked past Jahaziel´s desk, Lilith snatched the sword that Mousse had used on Kasumi that was resting on the table.

After the Princess of Freedom and her newest Soldier were out and hopefully far away Jahaziel unstiffened and opened his secret stash of whisky.

"I really shouldn´t but I think I need this." He commented at Kasumi, who had a bit haunted look on her face.

"Could I get some too, J-san?"

"Sure." He took two glasses, filled them and presented Kasumi a chair to sit next to the desk.

After they had been silent for a while Jahaziel shook his head sadly. "Mousse-san did a poor choice. Selling his immortal soul like that. Although I didn´t hear what she offered him, I am sure there would have been better alternatives. And to think she herself showed up just for one human. What is going on?"

Kasumi just stared at her drink.

o COGITO SUMERE POTUM ALTERUM o

Next day Ranma came for the final checkup. Jahaziel didn´t find anything out of the ordinary, except the curse lock, and promised to call several people who might be able to help. He called up every Nerimian Angel but they didn´t have a clue how to change Ranma back. Couple of them even secretly tried a standard Song of Entropy on her, as it was the one used to change shapes and appearances of things, but it didn´t work at all on her. Only thing Jahaziel gained from this was loads of interesting research material. Thus a month came and went without any noteworthy happenings.

Most other angels were lying low. Doing ordinary humanlike things like strolling around, having snack in local restaurants and observing occasional martial art fights. The orders of the Angels of Lightning were simple: Observe and encourage a possibility of a Tether to form in nearby Tomoe-laboratories. If Demons of Technology were detected, they were to be quashed with impunity. Other Demons deserved only slightly less viciousness.

The Angels of Creation were just lazing around (in the case of Tabiel), doing their daily jobs as disguised mortals (in the case of Alael and Ahora or Hinako as her mortal name was) or patrolling in eternal search of trouble (in case of Merhtal).

Koriel, the lone Angel of Destiny, being unbelievably busy had cut all direct links to other Angels but Jahaziel, who she saw about once in three days. Her time was spent mainly either in her mortal Role, or stalking Ranma to keep her out of harms way as much as possible. During the month she managed to avert seven different accidents which, as her Resonance as a Cherub of Destiny warned, would have been fatal to Ranma. This did not include any of the martial artists who popped out of the woodwork every now and then. If Koriel found out about them early enough, which happened about one time in five, she dealt with them herself. Silently, efficiently and quickly. Usually those who encountered her found themselves waking up in a cargo container that was being shipped somewhere remote.

The local Demons were keeping low profile too. The Nerima Jackass continued its popularity in Hell and thus they were rather busy filming the main stars, inventing all sorts of minor trouble and trying to figure out next major gag. Gebby was impatiently awaiting his friend, who was scheduled to arrive at the end of the month.

Neither Ryoga nor Mousse was heard of or seen after their disappearances. Of course for Ryoga this was perfectly normal. The disappearance of Mousse caused some commotion at first but it toned down as people set to their new routines.

Ranma was having one of the worst times of her life. Before this, she had been locked only for couple of weeks at most. Now it seemed she would be a she for at least semi-permanent basis. Because of the conditioning Genma had given to her during the training trip about girls being weak, and the lingering effects of threat of seppuku when not manly, she was feeling like a freak.

Especially one day was a total disaster for her. She found herself bleeding down there and her mother decided to give her "the Talk" for both forms after finding out Genma hadn´t bothered to do it. Ranma´s shrieks of terror were heard loud and wide.

When the constant attacks, glomping, malleting and shouting was added to the equation, it was obvious for most people with normal observation skills that the young martial artist was only a short trip away from total emotional burnout. Of course, most people around Ranma did notice absolute nothing.

Nodoka and Kasumi noticed and tried their best, succeeding somewhat. However, Genma and Soun increased their harping at Ranma about all sorts of things, but mainly about finding something to unlock the curse so that Ranma could marry Akane. Akane, of course, vehemently denied all interest in marrying Ranma.

The harping about the curse drove Ranma to harass Jahaziel, who now started cursing about not being an Elohite so he could just ignore all emotions and go on as the constant pestering started to get on his nerves. He tried his best to find anything that could help, but found only one viable option. He would need a help from an Archangel , because nothing else seemed to be working. He had three options in this, and they actually boiled down to one. Jean, his own Superior would not help seeing it as waste of time because he was engaged in too many other projects now. Jahaziel had asked and received an E-mail using those exact words. Yves, Koriel´s Superior, was known of his "figure it yourself"-answers and slight tugs to right direction. Koriel asked and was tugged to a bookstore to buy an artbook. This obviously indicated that they should ask for the help of the Archangel of Creation, who was nowhere to be found, as was usual in his case. So, Jahaziel had no other choice than to tell Ranma about an old eccentric guru, who wandered from place to place and usually could only be found if he wanted to be, and give the description of Eli´s favored form. Also one of the guru´s students was living nearby although Jahaziel didn´t tell Ranma where, as Amesoton propably would not be too amused if his peace was broken without warning. Ranma naturally wanted to go and find said guru or his student but Jahaziel convinced her to stay, as leaving Nerima now would get her killed as Koriel said after using her resonance. Jahaziel reasoned to Ranma that the old man was a bit like Ryoga, he would show up at odd times in odd places so it was a given that he would be back in Nerima relatively soon. Ranma grudgingly agreed to stay.

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A/N:

Reviewing appreciated.

Tether: A place on Earth or Marches with direct link to Heaven or Hell. They represent the Word of the Superior owning the tether in some significant way like for example Eli´s tethers are usually related to arts like galleries or workshops or have something to do with literal Creation like maternity wards. There are not many of these, only several hundred worldwide per Superior or less. They are major strategic locations in the War between Heaven and Hell since they have multitude of uses. Tethers can be created only by actions of humans or natural causes. Direct Celestial intervention does not work.

Fate/Destiny

Every creature has both. They both can be rather insignificant like forgetting to do something or keeping a certain promise or world shaking like inventing a new type of energy source. In case of humans if you reach your fate you will end up in Hell after death. If you reach your destiny you will be going to Heaven. If human dies but has reached neither or both he will usually either be reborn or his soul will shatter and dissolve from existence. For example many Nerimians have lived selfishly enough to reach their fate (like Mousse).

Perhaps a short recounting of different factions currently active in Nerima and their current agendas would be in order.

-----------

Angelic:

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Creation

Archangel Eli seen in Nerima. Current location unknown.

Official Agenda: Do what thou wilt but be cool. (Direct quote from Eli)

Alael – Cherub

Working as a school nurse. Usually rather busy until school ends.

Merhtal – Malakite

Usually encountered wandering around town seeking for demons to kill.

Amesoton – Malakite

Ancient Malakite outside of Nerima. In direct contact with Eli. Current agenda unknown. Apparently has wife and daughter.

Ahora – Mercurian

Working as Hinako Ninomiya, English teacher at Furinkan. Like Alael busy until evening.

Recently redeemed. In training for proper angelic behaviour.

Tabiel – Mercurian

Lazing around or fooling with her mortal lover. Is supposed to be training Ahora.

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Lightning

Archangel Jean residing in heaven.

Official Agenda: Creation of new tether.

Jahaziel – Seraph

Ancient Seraph working as a local doctor known as J-san among locals. Seen as the leader of all local angels because is a Seraph. For this reason usually very busy. Currently trying to tackle Ranma´s curse and the Tether creation at the same time.

Seris – Ofanite

Scout and courier of the Angels of Lightning. Currently missing, expected to return any day now.

Semal - Malakite

Mechanic and the primary warrior of Angels of Lightning. Fixing cars at local area keeping an eye out for Demon activity.

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Destiny

Archangel Yves residing in Heaven

Official Agenda: Keep an eye out and protect Ranma Saotome

Koriel – Cherub

Is trying to keep Ranma out of trouble as much as possible without revealing herself. Somewhat successful (Ranma is still alive at least).

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Demonic:

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Fate

Demon Prince Kronos residing in hell

Official Agenda: Drive all important people to their Fates, ignore rest.

Faction terminated by local angels. One redeemed, two sent back to Hell, corporeal bodies dead.

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Black Humor

Demon Prince Kobal location unknown

Official Agenda: Chaos, mayhem, and good chuckle at others expense.

Gebby – Habbalite

Has a big gag coming soon. Works in tandem with Demons of Media.

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Media

Demon Prince Nybbas residing in hell

Official Agenda: Keep producing Nerima Jackass

Shina – Balseraph

Head of the Nerima Jackass team. Trying to get as much name for herself as possible.

Zef – Calabite

Cameraman and more than willing to backstab Shina for personal gain.

Tenma – Impudite

Second cameraman. Poses as a student of Furinkan High.

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Freedom

Demon Princess Lilith seen in Nerima. Current location unknown.

Official Agenda: Ask nicely and be ready to pay and she may or may not tell.

Mu Tsu – Soldier of Freedom

Former Amazon of Joketsuzoku tribe. Has casted his lot with Lilith. Current location unknown.

Unknown Lilim 1.

Serving either herself, her Mother (Lilith) or some unknown faction. Has been helping Koriel now and then with Demon trouble.

Unknown Lilim 2.

Agenda unknown. Bargained with Mu Tsu for a sword and Love Potion.

-----------

Human:

-----------

Nerimian loonies

No leader

Official Agenda: Kill/marry/live at expense of Ranma Saotome

-----------

For request used latin prases and those to be used:

(First four taken from Elfen Lied, rest from various sources.)

OS IUSTI MEDITABITUR SAPIENTIAM, ET LINGUA EIUS LOQUETUR IN DICIUM.

Mouth of just shall meditate wisdom, and his tongue shall speak judgement.

BEATUS VIR QUI SUFFERT TENTATIONEM, QUONIQM CUM PROBATE FUERIT ACCIPIENT CORONAM VITAE.

Blessed is the man that endures temptation, for when he has been tried he shall receive the crown of life

KYRIE, IGNIS DIVINE, ELEISON.

Lord, the Divine Fire, have mercy.

O QUAM SANCTA, QUAM SERENA, QUAM BENIGMA, QUAM AMOENA. O CASTITATIS LILIUM

O how sacred, how fair, how kind, how delightful. O lily of chastity.

TRANSIRE SUUM PECTUS EGOQUE POTIRI, FIAT CHAOS.

To overcome one's human limitations and become master of oneself, let there be chaos.

VIGILANDO, AGENDO, BENE CONSULENDO, PROSPERA OMNIA CEDUNT.

By watching, by doing, by counsulting well, these things yield all things prosperous. (Sallust)

QUI DEDIT BENIFICIUM TACEAT; NARRET QUI ACCEPIT.

Let him who has done a good deed be silent; let him who has received it tell it. (Seneca)

QUID RIDES? MUTATO NOMINE DE TE FABULA NARRATUR.

What are you laughing at? Just change the name and the joke's on you. (Horace)

AMARE ET SAPERE VIX DEO CONCEDITUR.

Even a god finds it hard to love and be wise at the same time

CAVE QUID DICIS, QUANDO, ET CUI.

Beware what you say, when, and to whom

COGITO ERGO DOLEO

I think therefore I am depressed

COGITO SUMERE POTUM ALTERUM

I think I'll have another drink


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: All copyrighted material is property of their respective owners. I own nothing. This work is merely to show my appreciation to the original creators.

" " -speech

' ' - thoughts

( ) -telepathic speech

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Seeing that Ranma now supposedly had become permanently female, Genma and Soun had devised a new plan to unite the schools by wedding Ranma and Soun. They had seen an opportunity arise today when Nodoka had left shopping and wouldn´t be able to stop them before it was too late. What they naturally hadn´t considered was that snatching the bride and keeping her put until a priest arrived was not that easy.

Genma had tried to sneak behind Ranma with Umisenken to subdue her, while Soun waited with the wedding gown. Unfortunately for him, Genma had no idea that Ranma had already mastered and perfected the technique he was using, and could sense through it. She had leaped out of the way just as her father attacked and landed facing them in a defensive stance, scowling and wondering what idiocy it was today that she was to face. As she spotted Soun with the wedding gown, she was shocked enough almost not to manage to evade Genma´s next assault. The elder martial artist managed to land a slight kick to her side before she grabbed his foot and sent him crashing into Soun.

"What the hell ya two morons are doin´ now?" Ranma angrily demanded from the idiot duo as they collected themselves from the floor.

"Ranma, since you are stuck as a girl, it is obvious you cannot marry Akane. The schools must be joined so you are to marry Soun." Genma smugly said crossing his hands front of him.

"That is correct, old friend. The schools will be joined soon, oh I am so happy." Soun almost started to cry of joy.

"HELL NO! There´s no way I´m gonna do that." Ranma was seething now. How dare they even suggest something like that.

"Oh, to be cursed with such a discraceful son. Now, Ranma, this is a matter of honor..." Genma was interrupted by Ranma´s enraged shriek.

"HONOR! Like you understand it! Just shut up! SHUT UP!" She manhandled her father against the wall which bended and cracked slightly because of the force of the impact. Then she turned to Soun who now was cowering behind the white dress and wailing.

"Wahh, my fiancee is so scary."

"What. Did. You. Say." Ranma snarled at him. That was it. The old fools went too far and now was the time to pay. She crouched to a catlike pose, back arched, hands like tiger paws ready to strike, claws bared. Indeed, both hands had a set of glowing, incredibly sharp Ki-claws. Soun fainted in fear.

Just as she readied herself for a jump that would have heralded the end of Soun a figure came between them.

"Ranma! Don´t hurt father, please don´t," Kasumi pleaded. "What they did was wrong but he doesn´t deserve to die. Please, Ranma." Two streaks of tears ran from her eyes while she frantically tried to save her father´s life.

Ranma didn´t know what to do. All instincts told to shove the girl out of way and finish shredding the old fool but equally strong voice, probably reason, told that Kasumi would be hurt, in many ways, if she did it. And hurting Kasumi was an anathema to her. The ki-claws shimmered a little and faded out of existence.

At this moment Akane and Nabiki arrived at the scene.

"What the Hell you think you are doing, Saotome?" Nabiki had been sure that something like this was going to happen soon but she had hoped someone like Kuno or Ryoga would have set her off and not the old fools. As it seemed now if the situation was not solved quickly, the damage would be extreme.

Akane was seeing red. It was bad enough that she had to put up with the pervert staying but now she had the gall to attack Akane´s daddy. And she was going to attack Kasumi too!

"HENTAI NO BAKA!" The mallet descended again towards its favourite target flattening Ranma to the floor and getting the last shreds of will to kill out of her.

"Oh God. I almost... Oh God." She, lying on the floor, sobbed realizing how far she almost had gone.

Akane was intent to continue punishing Ranma but both her sisters blocked her way and didn´t give her a change to do anything until Ranma rose from the floor and half bolted, half staggered towards the front door. Kasumi tried to catch her but had no change as Ranma was quicker than her. Only thing Kasumi could do was to watch Ranma disappear after turning in the crossing of streets. She sighed and prepared to go after the younger girl but first she composed herself and checked her father´s condition since she already had a good hunch where Ranma would be going.

oOS IUSTI MEDITABITUR SAPIENTIAM, ET LINGUA EIUS LOQUETUR IN DICIUM.o

"Oo, she´s cute. And so deliciously distressed." A blonde girl, about twelve years old, commented to her companion as Ranma ran past them.

Gebby grinned at the girl. "Yup, she´s the main star of Nerima Jackass, you know. Don´t know what happened but I can say we got good timing on this one. She has a bit too much strength for direct conflict against her. And I´m pretty sure she wouldn´t accept what we´re gonna do without a fight."

"Got that right, G-man. Ok, I´ll go to the camerapost to check Tenma and getting the stuff in the truck ready. Give me a signal when you start," Zef, the third Demon present, commented and rose from his seat. They were sitting at an ice-cream parlor, watching passers-by and laughing at their expressions as the girl, Keebah, Habbalite of Gluttony, devoured huge amounts of ice cream.

"By the way, I really hope that Adam guy shows up soon. Shina´s going to do something nasty if this won´t work," Zef said before leaving the table.

Keebah smiled cutely. "Adam is such a sloth. It´s a bit funny though. Little me has a Knight as an underling."

"Yup. I heard some guy working for Saminga totally humiliated him. Don´t worry, he´ll show up soon enough. Even a guy like him will know better than goof when three Princes are watching results directly. You´ll get your chance to shine," Gebby reassured the other demon.

Keebah was an ambitious young demon, far more intelligent than her usual tasks required her to be. She had long ago decided to try to get in the service of another Prince more suited in her wits, someone like Kobal or Nybbas. Recently she had been rather bored and when Gebby, who knew about her ambitions, mentioned about the Nerima Jackass and that they may be needing her as a quest star sometime, she had been literally jumping for joy as the show was a joint operation between aforementioned Princes. She had persuaded Haagenti to give her an opportunity to attend the show, and actually managed to get him enthusiastic enough to loan the disfavoured Balseraph Knight to help her. This was her big chance. She didn´t mind the fact that she was to play a role in a gag that had already been used once in the show by humans. She would just do it with more style.

"Finally," Keebah said after spotting Adam leisurely strolling towards the ice-cream parlor.

"Where were you?" she demanded from the Knight as he greeted them.

"I had to prepare correctly, you know. I am after all going to get a fianceé." Adam replied nonchalantly.

"Whatever, I hope you remember your part in this correctly."

"Don´t worry. This will be easy. Heh, I can barely wait to taste the cooking of my new fianceé, Tendo Kasumi. I heard it´s "Heavenly"."

Gebby laughed at this and grinned evilly. "Don´t forget though that we all want to have fun with her. I bet she´s good at other things besides cooking, too."

Adam grinned back. "Naturally. I am sure we´ll have lots of fun."

oKYRIE, IGNIS DIVINE, ELEISON.o

Just as Kasumi intended to go and check the spot under the bridge, where she suspected Ranma to be, the doorbell rang. She opened the door and saw a long blonde gentleman accompanied by young girl. Behind them parked on the side of the street were a limousine and a truck.

"Greetings. If I am not mistaken this is the Tendo household. My name is Adam Mercier and this is my sister Melinda," Adam said gesturing at Keebah. "Is Soun Tendo or Kasumi Tendo present?"

"I am Kasumi Tendo," Kasumi said putting her hostess persona on front although she wanted to go looking for Ranma as soon as possible. "How can I help you?"

Adam kissed the palm of her hand. "It is a pleasure to meet you Tendo-san. I am sure your father informed you of the arrangement between our families to engage the firstborn of both families to each other. He didn´t? Perhaps we should go to find him then to clear things up." He gently dragged a rather dumbfouled looking Kasumi behind her to the Living room where most of the occupants of the house were.

Soun and Genma had barely regained their wits after the fight with Ranma. They now sat morosely at the shogi-board, brooding and waiting someone to do something about the situation. Neither had yet realized their gruesome fate after Nodoka would return from her shopping trip and find out about their stunt. Nabiki was talking with one of her retainers on the phone to keep her informed where Ranma was and what he was doing. Akane had retreated to the dojo for some workout to blow out the steam.

Adam let go of Kasumi´s hand and bowed to Soun. "Greetings Tendo-san. I have come to claim your eldest daughter´s hand as per the arrangement between our families.

"But, but what arrangement? I don´t remember any arrangement."

"Ah, that is easily solved, Tendo-san. Here is a copy of the original contract where it is clearly stated that you and my father agreed to wed Kasumi-san and myself. Even the dowry has been taken care of several years ago. It´s all in here." Adam offered the contract-papers to Soun but Nabiki snatched them to herself.

After critical inspection Nabiki had to admit they were as legal as they could ever be. She turned to her father and frowned. "Daddy, you´re turning just as bad as Uncle Saotome. What next? Someone comes to claim me because he offered you a sandwich?"

The reaction was very typical. Soun started wailing and moaning about Nabiki hating him.

Nabiki sighed in frustration. "I´m sorry but you came a bit bad time. We have a person missing and I would like to find her as soon as possible. Could this wait."

"Unfortunately, I am in a bit of a hurry myself. I am sure we can handle this fast as I was in any case going to take my fianceé with us to our mansion. Perhaps if you showed us a picture of this missing person I could help by sending some men to search her."

"I really would prefer to settle this later. Are you certain it´s impossible?"

"I would prefer to settle this here and now, but if you insist we could have a little contest to see if I can take her with me now or if I must come later to settle this."

"What did you have in mind?" Nabiki asked warily. If this was one of the normal weird martial-arts challenges they would be needing Ranma desperately to solve the situation. Besides she didn´t want to get her elder sister in any trouble

"Nothing much. Because my family is full of culinarists, we have often food eating competitions. I´m proposing a speed contest. Pick anyone here with a hearty appetite and he or she will compete against my sister. We have all set up in no time seeing that the truck with us is carrying some supplies to our family restaurant. If you win we can look at this matter later, if I win I´ll leave with my fianceé. Great idea isn´t it." As all Balseraphs, Adam was an expert liar. Even now was making all this up on the spot and projected his Balseraph Resonance to Nabiki to convince that this actually was a most brilliant idea. At the same time, again like all Balseraphs, he convinced himself that this was the truth, there could be no better solutions than this.

"I guess you´re right. Ok, we´ll settle this like you said." Even though Nabiki´s mind was well honed she was unprepared for the assault and without noticing anything odd accepted Adam´s point of view as her own.

"Great. Just pick your contestant while we set up the stage. Can I suggest we use your dojo?"

"Dojo´s fine as long as you will not damage it."

"Certainly not. Simple eating match hardly can do any physical damage."

"Oh, as far as I´ve seen it´s possible."

At this point Soun had gathered himself and tried to object. Keebah merely glanced at him and invoked her own Resonance filling Soun with almost overwhelming joy. He started immediately hugging startled Genma and blubbering how happy he was that his little girl was going to get married.

Kasumi, unable to do anything about the situation at the moment, watched at the sidelines with growing concern at her family.

oO QUAM SANCTA, QUAM SERENA, QUAM BENIGMA, QUAM AMOENA. O CASTITATIS LILIUMo

While Adam and Keebah were executing their part of the script, Zef and Gebby had their own preparations underway. They carried two tables to the dojo where they met Akane. Being familiar with her temper they had prepared themselves and as soon as Gebby saw her he invoked his Resonance to fill her with utter disgust and loathing towards the dojo building. Both Demons then watched amused as the girl ran out of the dojo while trying not to vomit, as she suddenly found the idea of being near the dojo extremely nauseating.

Next the duo carried the food from the truck, set up the tables and loaded the food on them. Then both sneaked out to the truck, keeping careful count that neither Soun nor Genma would have had any possibility to see their faces as they could recognize them because they were occasional drinking buddies.

oTRANSIRE SUUM PECTUS EGOQUE POTIRI, FIAT CHAOS.o

Everyone knew of Genma´s appetite so the choosing of the contestant was rather easy. Genma was just too happy to participate not being one to refuse a free meal, although the amount of food on the table managed to get even him to pause for a moment. Still, he was confident that the little girl could never beat him in this game.

They gathered to the dojo, Kasumi and Nabiki briefly wondering where Akane had gone.

There Genma and Keebah took their places at their respective tables with Adam telling them the rules of the competition.

"This is really easy. When I give you signal start eating. Continue until you´ve eaten all or you cannot eat anymore. The one who eats more wins, if both eat everything, the faster wins. Ready, set, eat."

Genma started to devour his food at incredible speed. Keebah merely watched him eat for a while waiting for a right moment and then she slurped most of the food on the table down with a vacuum cleaner-like maneuver. Genma, seeing this, increased his eating speed as he now was a little behind but managed only to almost gorge himself, Saotome eating techniques being the only thing saving him from such an embarrassment. Keebah again watched a while, smiled beautifully at Genma and ate the last portion of her food in a blink of an eye. Genma blinked twice, looked at the food in front of him and fell to the floor crying like a baby because a little kid had won him in eating.

"Seems like we won. Well, now we must depart. Come with me, dear," Adam said and dragged startled Kasumi towards the limo rather forcefully, Keebah following them. After a brief moment of bewilderment Nabiki ran after them but was only able to witness Adam manhandling Kasumi in to the limousine and going in himself before the car took off.

oVIGILANDO, AGENDO, BENE CONSULENDO, PROSPERA OMNIA CEDUNT.o

Ranma ran, heedless of direction. She had promised herself after Saffron that she wouldn´t kill again and here she was, almost killing someone who could not even offer a serious fight to her. What kind of monster was she becoming?

Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by a silent and muted voice coming somewhere very close. The voice picked volume and cleared more and more as it continued and soon she was able to hear individual words.

(...uck here way too long. Booriing! Come on! Hear me already!)

Surprised, Ranma almost ran to a nearby wall. "Wha? Who´s there?"

(Good, it finally worked. Not there Ranma. I´m in here, in your mind. I´ve been here for a long time.) Ranma could swear she felt like someone smirked at her.

"Who the hell are ya?" She shouted, getting several odd stares from nearby people.

(Shh, Ranma. Not so loud. Just think and I hear you. Perhaps we should find a nice secluded spot to talk, right. Or should we go and finish Soun up?)

"N-No. I won´t do it. I ain´t killer."

(Who said anything about killing that fool. Just beat him up. Show him how fun it is to be constantly beaten up by one´s fianceé.)

"I´m a guy damnit. Ain´t no one´s fianceé. And ya didn´t answer my question."

(Remember, Ranma, think, don´t talk. Now, if you stop feeling sorry for yourself for perfectly understandable reaction, start walking. Let´s go under that bridge where we so often go, shall we? As soon as we get there I´ll be more than happy to answer anything you want to know. How does that sound?)

(Umm, ok, but when we get there you´re gonna spill) Ranma thought, unsure who the owner of the voice was but agreeing it would be rather dumb to scream to some disembodied voice at the middle of a street.

(Of course, kiddo. And really, relax. You weren´t going to kill Soun. I wanted you just scratch him a bit so I encouraged you to go partially in Nekoken, although I admit there was a danger we would have gone all the way there and then it would have been bye bye for Soun. Damn shame you and Kasumi stopped me. Oh well, next time then, perhaps. Now start moving. I´ll talk you more when we reach the bridge.)

oQUI DEDIT BENIFICIUM TACEAT; NARRET QUI ACCEPIT.o

In the limousine the Demons were having a ball. Kasumi, on the other hand was being very uncomfortable, seeing that she had to suffer groping and leering from the others.

Gebby, who was driving, laughed heartily. "Hehe, you should have seen her. The girl got this really unhealthy-looking hue on her face and bolted off the dojo. Last time I saw her she was puking her guts out in the backyard."

"Yep, I noticed, that was hilarious. So, do we have anything else on schedule or what would you say about some partying?" Adam eyed Kasumi lustily. Kasumi merely glared back hatefully. She would not let the humiliation of her family to go unpunished.

oQUID RIDES? MUTATO NOMINE DE TE FABULA NARRATUR.o

Ranma headed to the bridge almost in an autopilot mode, like her body wanted to do just the thing the person in her head had suggested. She reached her destination in a short time, as her earlier dash had brought her roughly same direction, and hopped below the bridge to her usual spot. There she suddenly realized that she herself hadn´t thought coming here, but here she was.

"Huh?" Leave it to her to express confusion properly.

(Oh, but you did think coming here, if only subconsciously. After all this is one of the quiet spots, right. I just gave a gentle push to get you actually moving here.) The voice was back.

(Ya mean ya tricked me coming here? What do ya want and who are ya? Spill or I´ll kick yer invisible butt.) Ranma absolutely hated being tricked after all that had happened in her life.

(I seriously doubt you could manage to do that considering I´m stuck inside your mind. In any case, lets talk. My name is Shethar-Boznai, though you can call me Shethar. I´ve been in your head ever since the Nekoken incident.)

(So yer some sort of c-c-c-them-things spirit?)

Shethar chuckled little nervously. (No, I´m certainly not a... feline spirit. And please do not mention those little beasts. They... unnerve me.)

(How did ya get in my head then?)

(Simple, I tried to possess you. Then you went nuts and I got stuck.)

(Possess? You´re some sort of evil spirit, aren´t ya? Get out! I want nothing to do with yer kind. Got enough problems already.)

(Well, yes, I am a Demon, a Shedim to be exact although that may not tell you much seeing you are not into occult knowledge like for example the old letch is. And didn´t you listen me. I´m stuck. Probably for good until you die.)

(Demon! Ya are the one who´s been messing my life, aren´t ya. Isn´t that what Demons do?)

(Heh, normally you would be right. Before I got stuck with you I used to use a human per week for all sorts of silly, degrading and darkly amusing stuff. After I got stuck, I have been in a sort of stasis, sleeping in your mind and coming out only when your mind shuts down because of the fear of cats. And at those times I´ve been acting purely on instinct. I´ve been fully awake for only about a month.)

(I fear nuthing. I just dont like them little demons.)

(Ranma, Ranma, Ranma. I know you fear them, I know all your secrets, your hopes, everything. The thing is that you have somehow transferred that damn fear to me too. And frankly I really hate it. And no, I am not responsible for the stuff you have been through. I would suspect more that my former master has his hand in this. Your life is, after all, darkly amusing from certain point of view, and Kobal is the Prince of Dark Humor. Actually I suspect me being here may be his doing too. Damn him!)

(So, umm, are ya going to use me to do nasty stuff now? I let ya know I´ll be resisting if ya try that.)

(Worry not, kiddo. I will certainly not do anything like that. You are the one in control so I can just suggest, and that honor of yours will get in the way if I suggest anything outrageous. Since I have been with you so long you have been rubbing on me in all sorts of ways. For starters I really do not have any drive to corrupt people anymore. I think that you would need an advisor, though. You have an unhealthy ability to get in trouble without any outside influence with that mouth of yours.)

(Hey! I´m not that bad.) Ranma paused for a second. (Or perhaps I am. Damn.)

(It´s okay Ranma. I´ll help you. Actually I will train you to be eloquent enough to understand how Kuno thinks.) Shethar smirked mentally again.

Ranma shivered. (No! That´s not necessary but thanks anyway. I´m not ready to become loon yet.)

Shethar laughed loudly. (As you wish kiddo.)

Ranma then remembered something. (Wait, you said something about yer old boss being responsible for my crappy life.)

(I merely suspect it. He has propably been manipulating people to torture you, mainly your old man. Don´t even think going against him. He´s too powerful and unreachable for people like you, since you have no means to get to Hell without damning yourself and dying first. Best thing to do would be seeking allies who can thwart his plans. Perhaps that guy who´s looking at us over there can be a start. I have couple of ideas who he might be.)

Ranma felt Shethar wishing her to look upwards at the street so she complied. There, standing next to a street sign, was a familiar looking redheaded man in black suit watching her. Ranma stared back and narrowed her eyes.

oCAVE QUID DICIS, QUANDO, ET CUI.o

The Demons had decided to go do some partying at Zef´s place. Even Shina had decided to unwind a little and had showed up. At the moment she was sipping some beer and telling Keebah in and outs of working with Nybbas and, as surprising as it is for a Balseraph, was being mostly truthful. Keebah of course did not buy most of her stories but listened still as she really wanted to work for him, and the elder demon had so far had very successful career.

The four male demons had decided to first have something to drink and then have some fun with the new "fiancee" of Adam. Adam of course claimed the first turn with her which suited others just fine.

Adam dragged Kasumi to the bedroom, tossed her to the western model bed and bound her from her wrists to it.

"Now then girlie, lets have some fun. At least I´ll be having fun, I don´t know about you though." Adam leered at her and started to get his pants off.

"Oh my, I think I am the one going to have fun Demon-san," Kasumi commented casually while she ripped the tightly bound ropes around her wrists apart as they didn´t even exist. "You see, I am going to kick your Diabolical asses back to hell." The smile on her face was most serene.

Adam was very suprised. "What the... You´re an..."

"Angel? Oh yes. Die." A machine gun materialized in her hands and she shot a long burst towards Adam who managed to duck just soon enough to get only several scrapes.

oAMARE ET SAPERE VIX DEO CONCEDITUR.o

"What do you want?" Ranma asked from the man in front of her. "Ya needin´ a new pounding?"

"That´s not necessary, Ranma-san. Allow me to introduce myself. I am called Merhtal. I am here on behalf of my master. Our mutual friend, the doctor, asked me to contact him for you. He is willing to see you, although he wanted you to do something for him first."

"So, ya are a student of that guru Doc told me about or sumthin? What does he want?"

"Guru?" Merhtal chuckled. "Rather appropriate. And I can be called his student although it is not him but one of his other followers that teaches me." He shuddered a bit remembering the "training" Amesoton ran him through. "In any case he is my master and he asks you to accompany me to save a woman from the clutches of Demons. You tell your duty is to protect. Now is the time to prove it. Follow me." He made a gesture with his hand and started running away with a fast pace. Ranma, who was going to make an angry retort about not slighting her honor decided just to run after him.

(Interesting guy, I think he´s an Angel.)

(Huh? How so?)

(Easy. First, he´s going to kick some Demon butt. Second, remember Doc told that the name of this "Guru" is Eli, and he´s an Archangel you know. Eli is his boss. Third, he´s an irritatingly arrogant punk. What else can he be than an Angel? This is just good news however. Eli can help us with Kobal and with your gender-problem. So I think we should go and rescue this damsel in distress so we can go to talk with Eli. Now go and ask specific information about where we are going. And for God´s sake do NOT mention my presence to him.)

(Ok, ok. Take it easy.) Ranma increased her speed and soon was running side by side with Merhtal. "So, who exactly we are going to rescue and where?"

"Ah, you know her. Boss told me that she´s being assaulted by several demons in certain house and we should be able to locate the place with the disturbance coming from the fight. Reach all your senses out and listen. Can you hear it."

Ranma did as Merhtal told her to do and heard several jarring notes from the distance. They seemed to originate from one point. "Yup, there´s something weird going on there." She pointed at the direction of the disturbance. "So, who is she?"

"You know her as Kasumi Tendo. I know her by another name. It is not important right now. We must hurry."

"KASUMI? Ya´re tellin me Kasumi is assaulted by demons? Lets go, now!" She was going to hop to the roof and head to the direction of the fight but Merhtal stopped her.

"Wait. I know faster way to get there." He said, concentrated a little and a pair of jet black shadowy wings grew on his back. He was quickly airborne, grabbed Ranma to his arms and flew like a wind towards the house he had located as the origin of the disturbance. Ranma was rather startled at first but quickly gathered her wits and grimly started scouting her surroundings to locate their destination.

oCOGITO ERGO DOLEOo

Inside Zef´s house Kasumi was in deep trouble. She had already beaten Adam to a bloody mess, although he managed to crawl out of the room as other Demons had understood what was going on and attacked her en masse. She had tried to shoot her attackers and actually managed to keep everyone else off of her except Zef, who was very unhappy about her trashing his house. Besides, he was a big and bad Calabite so couple of gunwounds just tickled a bit. He had attacked her like an enraged bull, torn the machine gun off, thrown it somewhere and forced her in close combat. She had barely had time to summon her sword. Several vicious blows were exchanged, blood drawn and the deadly dance continued without other´s interference, as they didn´t want to get in the way of the enraged Calabite.

oCOGITO SUMERE POTUM ALTERUMo

Merhtal was hovering on top of Zef´s house just above the roof window. "Listen, Ranma-san. I´ll drop you beside the window then go through it myself. Follow me immediately and be prepared to kill everyone in the house save Kasumi-san." He didn´t wait for a reply, dropped Ranma and speeded through the window totally surprising both Keebah and Shina, who had decided to leave the Angel for the other Demons to deal with. Merhtal drew his sword and impaled Keebah without much fuss. As she dropped to the floor coughing blood he turned against Shina, who had hastily grabbed a tiny pistol and was trying to get out of the door. As he attacked her Ranma dropped in.

Ranma´s eyes nearly bulged out. Here the guy who had been talking about demons was slaughtering women and children. That crazy bastard. "What the..."

(Look out!) Shethar had barely managed to warn her as Gebby, who had heard their entry, attacked Ranma, her being the nearest to the bedroom door. Ranma dodged his swing as he tried to tag her with a nasty looking knife.

(Ranma, think about Kasumi, think about what may be happened to her. This guy is evil. Shred him. Think about Kasumi.) Shethar encouraged her so that she would go enraged enough to use the ki-claws. They would be a lot more efficient against Demons than normal fists.

Ranma snarled and crouched. The ki-claws popped into existence and she attacked Gebby with a feral fury. Gebby answered to her claws by manifesting a ki-shield and furiously tried to block her swings. As the combatants separated Gebby was sporting a bone deep gash in his left arm and some smaller cuts. There was also a rather nasty wound in Ranma´s side where Gebby had managed to stab her. The constant background noise, which Ranma now clearly heard originating from objects being destroyed all around the house was also distracting both combatants a bit.

Merhtal finished Shina in short order, although she had managed to shoot him to the chest twice. He had barely noticed the wounds, as the weapon was a small caliber pistol and couldn´t really harm him. As Shina´s lifeless body dropped to the floor, he turned around to seek a new target and spotted badly beaten Adam clutching a machine gun and pointing it at him. He managed to almost curse once before Adam pressed the trigger and send volley of bullets towards him. He hit the ground mortally wounded, but managed to drag himself to Adam as the gun malfunctioned. With his dying breath he swiped Adam´s head off and collapsed on top of the headless corpse.

In the bedroom Kasumi and Zef had almost torn each other to pieces. No furniture had survived their combat and Tenma, the only Demon not actively involved in combat had vanished somewhere. Now the Angel and the Demon were slowly circling each other, trying to find a hole in each other´s defences. Both were too injured to actively trying to pummel their opponent to submission. This continued for a while until Zef decided that he had had enough and manifested his Celestial form to escape.

"Oh no, you are not going to get away like that," Kasumi commented and she too went Celestial.

Ranma was just going to attack Gebby again as her eyes spotted most dangerous beast she had ever encountered. A man with muddy red glowing halo had been thrown through the wall separating the living room and bedroom and the wall had remained intact. The being that captivated Ranma´s attention came after the man through the wall. A magnificent, beautiful and large snow-leopard with silvery wings leaped at the glowing man growling angrily and took hold at his throat.

Gebby too had noticed this. "Shit," He cursed loudly and went celestial, his intention to attack the Angel trying to soulkill his buddy. His body regained same muddy red glow that Zed had, and his features became horribly scarred, tattooed and pierced.

(Ranma, Get down. NOW) Shethar´s voice carried urgency that penetrated Ranma´s fear and she complied. Just as she had hit the floor several laserlike beams shot through the place where her head had been just moments ago and hit straight to Gebby, who screamed loudly and spun around, only to gape in horror as a large, brightly glowing six-eyed and winged serpent shot through the outer wall of the house and tore in his body. He screamed a while, then the red glow around him dimmed and he started to became more and more transparent until he completely vanished with a brief dim flash. In the background Zef had already suffered same fate in the fangs of the large feline. Then the serpent gazed at the feline and said something, which to Ranma sounded just like musical humming without any meaning, and flew back to where it had come from.

The leopard glanced at Ranma who stared fearfully back. Then it started to shimmer, the glow dimmed and it changed form until severely beaten Kasumi was in its place. Her clothes were torn to the border of indecency, her ears, nose and mouth were bleeding and there was a huge gash across her stomach which barely did not let her intestines spill to the floor.

(Kasumi-san? Well, this is interesting.) Shethar commented.

"Ranma-chan," Kasumi weakly whispered. "What are you doing here?"

"I came with him." Ranma pointed at Merhtal´s corpse. Then she noticed that he, just like almost everyone else in the room was dead. "He´s dead. They´re all... Oh Kamis."

"Don´t worry Ranma-chan. He is not completely dead. Merely gone back to Heaven where he will be given a new body and will return shortly. He is one of the Malakim, a Warrior Angel. Their kind go through a lot of bodies." She coughed some blood to the floor. Ranma immediately was on her side supporting her.

"Kasumi, we must get you to the Doc now."

"There is no need, Ranma-chan. The cat is finally out of the pack." She chuckled weakly and Ranma flinched which made Kasumi flinch in pain too. "Let´s go back to the Dojo. I can have auntie check me. I would do it myself but I just used all my essence."

"Uh, what?" Ranma was now totally out of the loop.

"Essence, Ranma-chan, although you call it ki. Would you like to know anything else? I think I can answer some questions while we walk to the dojo."

"You´re not in walking condition Kasumi-chan. I´ll carry you."

"All right, as long as you do not roofhop. I think I would lose some of my intestines with that and its rather embarrassing to pick up your organs from the street, you know." Just then Kasumi noticed small movement at the corner of her eye. It was Keebah, barely alive, trying to crawl out of the house.

"Ranma-chan. Wait for a second, there is something I must do." She straightened a bit and slowly walked to Keebah balancing herself with walls. As he reached the crawling Demoness she manifested a large handgun, with "Executor" engraved in its barrel. Kasumi pointed it at Keebah and pulled the trigger twice. The Demoness slumped in a heap and laid still.

Ranma was horrified. "K-Kasumi, what did you do? Why did you...?"

"She´s a Demon. I couldn´t let her get away because she would cause trouble to us." Kasumi said with an ice-cold stare pointed at Keebah´s corpse. "The world is a harsh place, Ranma-chan, most things are not as simple as you believe them be. Now let us go back to the Dojo. I am sure they are worried about us."

Ranma stared at the Tendo homemaker, who she had thought to be an antithesis of violence until now. "Who are you?"

"I am Tendo Kasumi. As long as Tendo Kasumi has existed I have been her. I have not replaced the real Kasumi if you think that. As for my other form, that is the real me but we will talk of this more when we reach the dojo. Now let´s go." Kasumi´s voice had grown slightly impatient.

(She´s right, kiddo. This is not the place nor the time for questions. She will tell you what she wishes to tell later, and I will too.) Shethar had the same undertone of impatiency in his voice.

"Ok. But I want answers." Ranma said to them both.

"You will get them." Kasumi replied. Shethar merely nodded mentally.

oOS IUSTI MEDITABITUR SAPIENTIAM, ET LINGUA EIUS LOQUETUR IN DICIUM.o

Juuban - Japan

The little girl looked at her father questioningly. "Papa, why are we here? And why must I drag this around? I wanna go home watch Anime, papa."

Amesoton glanced at his daughter and the polearm, larger than the little girl, that she was dragging around like it weighed absolutely nothing, although he knew better. It was one of the heaviest objects in existence. "Hotaru-chan, do you remember when I told you about those nasty people who must be punished?"

"Uh huh, I remember, papa. You said I will someday become just like you and can help you."

"Well, daughter, today we start your training with this glaive your grandfather gave you. Do you see that house over there. There lives one of the most nastiest people around, and we are going to blow up his house to teach him a lesson."

"Hai, papa."

"First, remember never to use this when there are normal good people around. This is important Hotaru-chan. Use this power only when there are only nasty people around."

"Hai, papa."

"Good, now consentrate on the melody you hear in the background of everything. When you hear it clearer, move it, coax it, away from the Glaive. It will help you all the way. When you feel the Glaive be still, totally silent, point the glaive at the house and let it hear the melody again.

The child did as she was told, and concentrated. Her brow furrowed as she tuned out the Symphony around the Glaive and finally she pointed the polearm towards the house.

oO QUAM SANCTA, QUAM SERENA, QUAM BENIGMA, QUAM AMOENA. O CASTITATIS LILIUMo

Baal, the Demon Prince of War, was negotiating with his underlings about the strategy of to be used against Heaven in Far East. To enhance the ability of thinking matters in Corporeal viewpoint, he had decided to keep the negotiations in a nondescript house in one of the suburbs of Tokyo. Just as they had ended calculating the available resources a black net of energy hit the house, obliterating it and most of the demons in it. Some survived, greatly weakened, back to Hell. Only bewildered Baal was left standing in the charred ruins. He was greatly confused as his personal Symphony had vanished somewhere. He did not even hear the Symphony in whole, and as the Silence surrounded him he was truly afraid for the first time in his long life.

oQUI DEDIT BENIFICIUM TACEAT; NARRET QUI ACCEPIT.o

Amesoton stood beside her daughter, a mild shock briefly visiting his features. That blast was familiar to him but there were some concerning effects to it he did not remember, actually it should have created Symphonic disturbance loud enough to be heard by every Celestially aware being in the Universe but the blast had teared the Symphony from the area, and it would be a miracle if all the Creation did not 'hear' the Silence that permeated the area of the now ruined house. Hopefully it would not be permanent, as Eli or even God Himself would like to talk to him. That would be bad. He quickly gathered his wits, as he had some important things to do at the moment. He turned to his daughter.

"Good job, daughter. Now run along. I´m sure your grandfather has planned something fun. I need to go for a little trip for couple of days so be nice to your grandfather. Grandmother may visit too, although I am not sure. Go on child." Amesoton kissed his daughter´s forehead and gave her a gently push towards home.

"Hai, papa. I love you. Be back soon and safe."

"I love you too, squirt. Go on now." Amesoton smiled as Hotaru ran back to towards their house. Then his visage grew grim as he focused at the Demon Prince who still was looking rather confused. It pained him to use his daughter like this but she needed to learn her heritage. He would have to have a talk with Eli about the rupture in the Symphony, but it would have to wait until he came back. He just prayed it wouldn't cause more burden to his daughter. She had enough to be placed on her small shoulders as it was.

"I will come to you now Traitor! Prepare yourself!" He shouted raising Violator, his trusty maul, and charging at Baal. The Demon Prince regained his wits after first two hits and started answering hit by hit with his katana. Eventually both combatants were lying dead in the ruins of the house, souls of both gone to their destinations in the Celestial Realm.

oKYRIE, IGNIS DIVINE, ELEISON.o

Nerima – Japan

Nodoka Saotome was angry beyond anything she had experienced before. Today, just as she had been sampling some clothes, she had felt how the part of her soul that had been chained by a Geas for nearly fifteen years had been freed as the Geas had been lifted. She had immediately headed back to the Tendo-Dojo to have a long overdue discussion about the true meaning of honor with a certain pandafied moron. Now she was free to do everything possible to protect her son turned daughter.

As she had reached the Dojo, she had found out all that had transpired during her absence. The sword was out of its scabbard instantly after she heard about the shifting of the engagement to Soun. Only thing keeping the two idiots alive now was the fact that her son and Kasumi both were in trouble and might need her help, so she had gone searching for them after knocking the idiot duo unconscious and demanding Nabiki to tie them up and keep them put until she would came back.

She did not need to go far as she saw Ranma carrying Kasumi towards the Dojo.

"Kami-sama, what happened," Nodoka exclaimed as she saw the condition in which Kasumi was.

"I ran afoul with some Demons, Auntie. Ranma came to help with Merhtal and I´m afraid the cat is out of the pack." At this Ranma fliched and Kasumi grunted slightly because of the pain.

"It seems that we need to talk, Ranma." Nodoka said as she walked at their side back to the Dojo.

"Don´t tell me you´re in this too Mom." Ranma almost pleaded.

Nodoka smiled sadly at her. "I´m afraid I´m even more in this than most others."

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A/N:

Phew. Most of the main players are introduced, the plan is in motion and Ranma may finally find out the reasons behind the chaos that is in his life. You may also recognise Hotaru and her weapon. Yes, this fic or the sequel is eventually going to be Ranma/SM/IN although excluding Hotaru and some other minor things there will not be anything from SM for a long time. In the next chapter his/her true heritage will be revealed to Ranma.

Some more explanations:

Distinctions:

There is a ranking system in the forces of most Archangels and Demon Princes. For Demons lowest rank above common Demon is Knight, second is Captain, then Baron and so on until the ladder reaches Dukes and the Prince. For Angels first rank above common Angel is Vassal, then comes Friend, then Master and so on.

(Note: Hmm, looks like I´m reposting this often, sorry.Thanks for pointing out the typo Drifter950.)


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: All copyrighted material is property of their respective owners. I own nothing. This work is merely to show my appreciation to the original creators.

" " -speech

' ' - thoughts

-telepathic speech

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Last time:

"Don´t tell me you´re in this too Mom." Ranma almost pleaded.

Nodoka smiled sadly at her. "I´m afraid I´m even more in this than most others."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What do ya mean mom?" Ranma asked.

"I´ll tell you soon. Let´s take care of your and Kasumi-chan´s wounds first and then we should go and clear up some things to the others."

They walked at the nearby alley where Nodoka asked Ranma to put Kasumi down and then began singing softly. Both Ranma´s and Kasumi´s wounds healed visibly and soon were entirely gone.

Kasumi smiled at the older woman. "Thank you, auntie."

Nodoka nodded. "You are welcome, my dear. Now we can go back to the dojo and have a little chat with some people who need to be brought into reality." She glanced at Ranma "First I need to know something though."

"Sure, mom. Whaddya want to know?"

"Ranma, tell me do you have any unexplainable selfish impulses."

"Uhh, no. I don´t think so." Ranma replied.

"Why do you ask something like that, Auntie?" Kasumi inquired looking rather puzzled.

"Something happened earlier today that made me suspect Ranma may be under Diabolical influence." Nodoka replied. Kasumi gasped at this.

"Although I know your basic nature Ranma, which is completely and totally honourable and mostly selfless, there must be something Demonic lurking in your soul now," Nodoka continued. "Ranma, I can tell it. Please answer me truthfully."

"Um, well there´s Shethar. He´s a Demon, Shed-sumthing."

Shethar was very annoyed. (Well, thanks a lot, kiddo. Oh well, I´m sure I would have been discovered eventually.)

"A SHEDITE?" Nodoka and Kasumi were horrified. The Shedim were commonly known as the vilest of all Demons and they had very little love for them. To think one was residing inside Ranma...

"There´s no need ta be like that mom. Shethar´s not that bad a guy and besides he´s been in my head since pops taught me Nekoken. I found out about him just a while ago and he himself said he got no power over me."

"The Corruptors are not to be trusted Ranma," Kasumi said.

Her hand twitching at the hilt of her katana, Nodoka directed her words to the Demon in her child´s mind. "Listen to me vile being. I will not let you corrupt my child more. Unless you want to face people like Amesoton, get lost."

(Eeppp. Tell your mother that I am stuck in here. I have not hurt you, Ranma, have I? Please, please do not let her take me to Amesoton. I don´t want to die!)

Ranma got an urge to barter with the demon in her head. (What exactly are ya going to give me for saving your ass?) Immediately after this she started to wonder why she had asked such a thing from Shethar.

Shethar, who knew very well about Ranma´s new-found urges and why she had them, was not very amused. (Nnoo, no Geas tricks, please. Lets just say that you keep me alive and I swear I will not harm you any way. I am willing to Geas myself to do that, okay. Now just tell your mom we need to go see Eli.)

Ranma gave mentally her agreement and spoke out loud with her mother. "Um, mom, Shethar can´t leave anywhere, he´s stuck in my head. He said somethin´ about going to see this Eli who Doc says can cure me."

Nodoka arched an eyebrow. "Is that so? Well, he got his wish. We will leave to see him eventually. Now, however, let us hurry to our house in Juuban. I have lived this lie long enough and sooner it is fixed the better. We will start by letting you know what really is going on. Let´s fix the situation in Nerima later. Kasumi, what exactly did you mean by saying the cat is out the bag?"

"I´m afraid I had to go Celestial in front of her, Auntie."

"Well, I suppose it had to happen sometime. Could you tell me the specifics?"

Kasumi, in low voice, explained everything that had transpired earlier while they walked to the train station and boarded the train to Juuban. After she had finished the rest of the journey was spent in silence as Nodoka told Ranma it would be unwise to further discuss such things before they were safely in a private place as it would be dangerous for anyone to overhear them.

o TRANSIRE SUUM PECTUS EGOQUE POTIRI, FIAT CHAOS. o

Hades, Hell.

The Djinn bureaucrat eyed the Habbalite Knight of Judgement before him. "We´ve got increased Angelic activity in Nerima, Japan. Several Princes have lost all their servitors although my reports tell they´ve been acting rather sloppy. In any case there is something going on in there and I need it to be investigated. Since it is a hazardous area to be in I cannot send just anyone. I´m surprised to have one of Lord Asmodeus´s personal agents to help me but since you´re in for the job I´ll be happy to give you the responsibility. Is there anything you need before you go Menhael?"

"No, unless you know where Happosai is. Last I heard of him he was prowling around somewhere in Nerima but I lost his tracks," Menhael replied.

"You mean that sorcerer. No, we do not know of his whereabouts. Why would you need that lecherous, undead fool for anything?"

"Oh, he´s a marvellous source of all sorts of knowledge if you know what strings to pull. I´ll leave immediately."

o VIGILANDO, AGENDO, BENE CONSULENDO, PROSPERA OMNIA CEDUNT. o

The three women eventually arrived at Juuban station from where they walked through the neighbourhood until they came to a house that was spacious and nice looking but blended in it´s surroundings well enough so that people who passed by paid it almost no attention at all.

Inside they were greeted by a tall tanned woman who was playing with an young girl. The little girl gave a happy shout and glomped Nodoka after which she stared curiously at the two young women who she had never seen before. The woman came to hug Nodoka and addressed her. "Hello, daughter. I see that you finally got chance to free Ranma from Kobal´s webs." Nodoka smiled and hugged her back.

Then Lilith, as it indeed was the Princess of Freedom greeting them, turned to Kasumi and smirked. "Hello again Kasumi-chan, or should I say Koriel-chan." She laughed at the shocked look Kasumi gave her after hearing her true name being known by a Demon Princess.

"H-hello, Lilith-san. Could you please call me Kasumi. After all that is my Role here," Kasumi shakily replied.

"Sure thing, honey, although I think Kasumi Tendo is already a busted role you should discard as soon as possible. If you need help to find a new one just ask." Lilith said and turned to inspect Ranma. "Hmm, she looks like she got out of this mess relatively intact. That´s good. It´s nice to meet you at last Ranma. My name is Lilith and I am your grandmother."

Ranma got confused. The woman looked like twenty five years old at maximum. "Huh? You´re too young. You look nothin´ like an old ghoul."

Nodoka stared aghast at her offspring for being that disrespectful. "Ranma!"

Lilith merely laughed loudly. "Don´t worry No-chan. She´s a refreshing change to a normal routine of people bowing and groweling at me. In fact I think I take that as a compliment. Thank you Ranma. I look this young because I like to look young. I am a Demon Princess you see so altering my looks is not that hard."

Ranma stared at Lilith in utter shock. Then something clicked and she turned to stare at her mother who nodded like she knew what her daughter was thinking. "D-demon? N-no way! No frigging way!"

"That is true, Ranma. I am a Demon. One of the Lilim, Daughters of Lilith also called Succubi." She began to glow with a red tinted light, her skin turned into an unearthly yet beautiful shade of green and two small horns grew on her forehead.

ooo

Menhael had just ascended from Hell and was examining the assignment dossier in his laptop more closely. Demons of Fate, exterminated by Malakim because they had became too visible and one of them even let herself to be Redeemed. Menhael frowned. That traitor would pay.

Next, the "Nerima Jackass"- team plus some others were terminated by a Cherub who had disguised herself as a housewife. Additionally there had been at least one Malakite and one or two other Angels at the site. The idiots who survived back to Hell from that encounter had not been capable of anything else than babbling about Malakim. He hated Malakim.

o QUI DEDIT BENIFICIUM TACEAT; NARRET QUI ACCEPIT. o

Ranma was about to bolt out of the door. This was insane. Way too much for her to handle right now and like this. Her mother a Demon. She could not believe it. Demons were nasty evil beings who relished in hurting others. They were beings that Happosai or some other nut summoned to torment people. Momma was nothing like that, well except that she seemed to relish in causing pops all sorts of panic reactions but pops really deserved it. She began to edge towards the door trying to look anywhere else than to her mother but Kasumi got a firm grip at her shoulder that prevented her from moving anywhere.

"All is well, Ranma-chan."

"But..."

"Trust me, please. She would never hurt you."

Ranma turned to watch her mother again and saw that she had turned normal-looking again and had a very hurt expression on her face and was on a verge of crying. Ranma had never felt so ashamed before. After Kasumi had released her she approached her mother her head hung low.

"I´m sorry, mom. This is just too much. It´s just that that Demons are supposed ta be evil and you´re not evil! You can´t be evil! Please, tell me you're joking, momma."

Nodoka pulled her son-turned-daughter into a hug. "I wish I was joking. And do I seem evil to you, Ranma? Not every Demon serves Hell."

"Yes, most of them serve only themselves," Lilith remarked. "And most of the Host of Heaven are mindless idiots. Cut the crap No-chan. Ranma, the point here is not if someone is good or evil. The point is that you are not a human. None of us present are.

Nodoka spared an annoyed glance at her mother. "Mother, I really wish you would cease to be so callous."

"Come now, No-chan. She needs to know. As soon as possible. Either you tell her now or I will."

"I was going to..."

"Yes but you were going to dance around this issue. We need her ready as soon as possible and you know it."

"I know. I know. I will tell her now."

"Good." Lilith stood up, tousled the hair of the young girl who she had been playing with and gave her a small push."Go greet your sister Chibi. I´ll be going now. I have to go and try to sidetrack Kobal a bit. He´ll be livid and who knows what that loon will do now as his favourite toys have been taken from him." She pointed an accusing finger to Kasumi. "Your friends also have caused a bit too much ruckus lately. Too many eyes are watching Nerima at the moment so be very careful."

As she then began walking towards the door, Nodoka stopped her. "Wait, Mother. Where is Amesoton. I left Hotaru in his care when I went to visit Ranma. He promised to take care of her."

Lilith shrugged. "He had a meeting, you know how Malakim are. Ask more from ´Taru-chan if you wish. Or try Eli. He´s at the backyard. See you later daughter, children." She nodded at the others and left.

o COGITO SUMERE POTUM ALTERUM o

Menhael sighed. The only thing he had managed to find out that the old pervert had not been around for two months. Well, he could do all the information gathering himself but why bother when there was a source like Happosai who knew the area and wasn´t stupid enough to try to cross him. Very well, perhaps he could risk a bit of disturbance in the Symphony. He walked in to the nearest supermarket and sought the women´s underwear section. He took a most frilly lingerie set he could find and began the summoning ritual to call the Old Pervert.

"Happosai, Happosai, Happosai..." Menhael chanted while waving the lingerie in intricate pattern.

"Hotcha!" With a poof the old lecher appeared on the scene and tried to grope nearest female only to be stopped by a strong arm holding the back of his shirt.

"Hello, Happy, long time no see."

"Who dares... Oh hello, sonny-boy. How can this old martial artist help you."

Menhael smirked. "By answering my questions. I´ll let you roam around freely as soon as I have all the answers I need."

Happosai began sweating. So much pretty female flesh and silky darlings around and he could not reach them. Last time he had cheated Menhael he had ended up in a sealed box of used men´s underwear and being kicked every now and then for a week. "You are cruel, so cruel, but I will do as you say. Please be quick."

o BEATUS VIR QUI SUFFERT TENTATIONEM, QUONIQM CUM PROBATE FUERIT ACCIPIENT CORONAM VITAE o

In Juuban Nodoka had ushered her children and Kasumi in the living room and had dragged a scruffy caucasian man with a rasta hairdo from the backyard where he had been painting to join them for a little talk. After serving tea she began introductions.

"Ranma, meet your sister, Hotaru. Hotaru-chan your big sister is finally home. Say hello to her."

Hotaru came to Ranma, sat on her lap and much to Ranma´s discomfort began to poke her breasts. "Momma, you said I had a nii-san, not nee-san."

Nodoka smiled at the girl. "Your nii-san had a little accident. He´ll be a she for a while."

"Poor nii-san. Don´t worry. Grandpapa will help. He´s wise.

"I´ll try Chibi, I´ll try." The scruffy man said. "Hello, Ranma. I hear you and your passenger have been looking for me. I am Eli and I hear you wanted to ask me something."

"Yup. Doc said you can turn me back to a boy. Can you do it?" Shethar caused a small commotion in her head. "Oh and Shethar wants out."

"Sure, I´ll help you, you are my grandchild after all. I am your father´s father."

"Huh?" Then Ranma remembered something Shethar had said earlier. "Wait, Shethar said you´re an angel, right? You´re pulling my leg aren´t you. Pops can´t be any relation to you."

"If you mean Genma Saotome, then you are correct. He is no relative of mine. Neither is he yours. You see, No-chan here was forced to marry Genma when she already was pregnant with you. I´ll let her tell the details first and the check what I can do for your form. First things first though," Eli reached for Ranma´s torso and his hand passed through her body like it was liquid. He made a motion like he was picking something up and pulled fast. As Ranma saw that he was now holding a purple cat from the scruff of it's neck she flinched.

"Put that furry demon away!" She shouted.

"Sure, I need to have a chat with Shethar here anyway."

At this point the cat regained it´s senses. "Nooo! Damn you! You´re just as nasty as Kobal is. Why a cat? Why? I hate cats." Then the Demon-turned-cat realized it was talking to a being of immense power. "Forgive me o great Archangel, I spoke hastily. Ask whatever you wish o Divine One and..."

Eli snorted. "Cut it out, buddy I need not that sort of behaviour even if you just volunteered at my service by coming here. We´ll discuss the details. Oh, you will also play with ´Taru-chan of course." He handed the cat to the girl.

Hotaru squealed happily. "Oo, a pretty kitty. Thank you, grandpapa." Shethar merely mewed pathetically.

"You´re welcome, chibi. Let´s go to the backyard so you two can play." He smiled at Nodoka who looked like she would kill the demon-cat for touching her precious daughter. "Don´t worry, No-chan. I´ll look after her. Shethar won´t harm her. Ranma needs to know who she is and it is your job to tell it. I´ll leave you two to talk." Then he glanced at Kasumi. "You too girl. Come with me."

Kasumi followed Eli outside and gave Ranma an encouraging squeeze at the shoulder as she passed by.

o KYRIE, IGNIS DIVINE, ELEISON. o

Menhael was somewhat satisfied at the results of his meeting with Happosai, although he had only been capable of supplying some basic information of Nerima´s happenings of late, he had managed to get knowledge of two other sources who would trade information and also tips how to deal with them. After telling this Happosai´s self control had snapped and he had assaulted nearest woman with loud "Hotcha!" and stolen every bra and panty either worn or being sold in the market before exiting, totally oblivious that Menhael would probably make him suffer at their next meeting for his insolence.

Right now Menhael walked towards Nekohanten to meet his next contact, Cologne. Happosai had told him that the old amazon would be an ideal source of detailed information of non-mundane happenings in the area, he just needed to be...persuasive...enough. The other source, Tendo Nabiki would probably know more about mundane stuff, although she could also be very useful as she lived in the nexus of the chaos, the Tendo Dojo.

o CAVE QUID DICIS, QUANDO, ET CUI. o

A confused Ranma sat at the sofa in the living room. She had got too much information in too short time. Her mother was sitting next to her trying to comfort her.

"I think I should start from the very beginning," Nodoka said. "I am Tehinnah, one of the youngest daughters of Lilith. Saotome Nodoka is only a face that I use when I deal with men. I was created by Mother barely twenty-one years ago. You see we Lilim are created as fully functional adult Demons unlike almost everyone else. Other Demons usually need to grow up from a gremlin or an imp to become whatever type of Demon they will become. Anyway I spent my first year in Hell learning the ropes from my older sisters until I finally decided to go work for a Demon Prince. Foolishly I sought out Kobal´s recruiters and they gave me a mission on Earth to aid his agents in various tasks. I spent about an year like this doing all sorts of minor things here in Japan and getting more and more bored."

Her storytelling was interrupted by Ranma "Wait a sec mom, you´re telling me you´re three years older than me?"

"Yes. I am a Celestial being and as I said I was born as adult. Perfectly normal for my kind. Mother sees no point to create Demonlings as they usually are useless to her. Each and every Lilim is a work of art. But back to the story. One day as I was walking on the street I was ambushed by an Angel. One of the Malakim whose kind I hear you have already met."

Ranma got a haunted expression on her face. "Yeah, that guy who died in that fight."

"He is not permanently dead, Ranma. It takes more than death of a body to destroy a Celestial. We die permanently only if our souls are shattered in tiny fragments and you need special means to do that on Earth. That Malakite is back in Heaven right now and no doubt impatiently waiting for a new body."

"That´s good. I..." Ranma looked very uncertain. "Momma, who and what Kasumi is? She turned in some sort of winged c-c-cat and killed some girl in cold blood."

"She is a Cherub, assigned as your guardian Angel. She may look sweet, fragile and non-threatening but in reality she is a skilled warrior, utterly dedicated in keeping you unharmed, which is an extremely hard job as she also must conceal her identity and work from shadows because the world is not ready to know the existence of Celestials. Her true name is Koriel and she serves the oldest of all beings save Kami-Sama himself. If you want to know more than this you must ask it from her yourself."

"Ok, mom," Ranma said, her head starting to ache from all the information being presented.

"Now then, no interruptions before I have finished please. As I said I was ambushed by a Malakite. He swooped down from a roof and knocked me to the ground intent on hacking me to tiny pieces. Who knows where he had found out that I really were a Demon and not just some random human girl. Even if I know how to hold a sword I am no warrior so I began to plead for my life although it usually is a futile thing to do when facing a Malakite as they have all sworn "not to suffer an evil to live if it is their choice". All Malakim take their oaths very seriously as their very being is Honor."

"In any case I was actually very surprised when he did not kill me but told me that I could go free if I betrayed my companions. I was more than happy to do so to spare myself from corporeal death. It is not a pleasant experience I´ve heard and can destroy your mind so I did not want to take any chances and told everything I knew to him."

"Of course in retrospect that was a rather stupid thing to do if I had wanted to remain serving Hell. The Angels hunted down all other Demons in the area and spared me as long as I swore to keep from doing anything evil. My masters in Hell decided that I had betrayed them and declared me a renegade Demon. One of the Renegade hunters of the Hell´s Internal Police or Game as it is called was sent after me and he eventually found me even after I did my best to lay low."

"He confronted me in a dead-end alley where he had chased me and was just going to soul kill me as the Malakite, Amesoton, who had attacked me earlier assaulted him in same manner he had done with me. The Renegade Hunter had no chance as Amesoton is an ancient being, over four billion years old and capable of taking down any demon short of a Prince."

"After he had killed the hunter Amesoton told me that Mother had contacted his master, Eli, and they needed me for something. He took me to a Shinto temple in Kyoto that was a large base of operations for local Angels. Mother was waiting for me there and she told me that I had screwed up mightily and only thing preventing her to hand me down to Kobal was that she needed me for a little task. I was to bond with an Angel to create an offspring and then I was to carry it and give birth in human fashion. I was rather mortified but still did as she told me to do. I owe her my life, twice. She created me and saved me from the Game, endangering herself in the process.

"Now, when non-superior-status Celestials want to have offspring it is a rather complex process. Parents will give up a part of their soul and an Archangel or a Prince must then bind those parts together with energies that are harvested from surrounding world. Our child became an angel for he had never fallen and he was to be of the Choir of Malakim, a pure warrior of honor specifically created for a task Mother has never revealed for me. Usually such Celestials are fully adult-like from the moment of their birth but in this case it was to be different. It was meant that he would spend his first years as a human, growing to understand the Corporeal world as only a human can."

"You, Ranma, were that child. You were born as an Angel although right now you are a Demon like myself because something happened at Jusenkyo. Your real father is a warrior Angel who was created by the Archangel of Creation and such Eli can be considered as your grandfather just like Lilith can be considered as your grandmother. They together did the binding that created you from our souls."

"If all had gone to the plan you would now be an Angel, ready for whatever task Mother and Eli needed you. It was meant that Amesoton would guard me during my pregnancy and act as your "human" father afterwards. He had to leave for a short mission though and that was the chance that Kobal needed. He was understandably still angry at me for causing his minions to be slaughtered and so he kidnapped me and forced me to Geashook myself so that I would do nothing against his plan to pervert your nature. If I had not agreed he would have killed you and given me to the Game. This way I at least had a chance to be rescued with you."

"I was forced to marry Genma, an idiotic, greedy human whom I despise with all my being. As he never noticed I was already pregnant when we married he thinks you are his son. That is something I really do not care to correct as he does not need to know anything about your true self. He is probably totally ignorant about all this and thinks that Kobal is my father with whom his father made a marriage contract."

"I continued to hope that your father would come and rescue us again until Genma decided, probably with Kobal´s prodding, to take you to that training trip. Kobal forced me to agree with that damned seppuku-contract and so they took you from me. I was totally devastated as you were to first and only being I had ever loved to that point of my life. Fortunately Amesoton found me soon afterwards and took me away. I was still under the Geas not to interfere with your life but at least now I had people who would help me to get you back and nullify that Geas.

"Eventually I grew to love your father too, as surprising as it is. We lived together and about five years ago we decided to have another child. Eli was more than happy to help and so Hotaru was born in same manner as you did. She has always been more aware of her Celestial powers than you have although she still is just a little girl and I intend to keep her childhood as human like and happy as possible."

"About three years ago we were contacted by Koriel who had been given the Role of Kasumi Tendo, the first-born of Soun and Kimiko Tendo. She told us that her master, Yves the Archangel of Destiny, had taken an interest on you and assigned her to watch over you as soon as you would come to Nerima. She has been keeping us updated about your life ever since you came to live with her."

"When I first saw you when you were trying to hide from me as Ranko I instantly recognized you since you have a part of my soul but decided to keep that to myself as I needed to keep up the impression that I was still fully under Kobal´s boot. You being cursed managed to lessen the hold that the Geas had on me as it was worded so that it would last until your Angelic self would be turned into a truly Demonic one and your cursed form has always been like a Lilim although that alone was just enough to weaken the Geas as you are not a true Hell-born Lilim. Somehow today the Geas ceased to exist altogether as that accursed Shedite woke up and got in contact with you. I came to seek you as soon as I could after I felt it."

"I am free once again and so are you although we need to be very careful. Kobal will try to do something and I am sure there are more players in this game now as you have been introduced in the local Celestial politics. You must grasp your Destiny and become what you were supposed to be all along. Although after what Jahaziel did show to us I am rather concerned, I am sure that Eli will fix whatever Jusenkyo did to you. He did after all create those pools millennia ago."

"He did? How?" Ranma asked, nearly overwhelmed by the story. It sounded so unbelievable that it must be true. Her life was, after all, nearly as weird if one stopped to think about it.

"As far as I have heard he found some weird mushrooms. What happened next, and I quote, was 'The best and weirdest trip I've ever had'. Thankfully there´s no "Spring of Drowned Archangel" but the springs were warped by his presence somehow and you know how they are now." Nodoka said with a hint of reproach in her voice.

"Figures. My grandfather is a loony Angel and grandmother is a crafty Succubus. Hopefully my father is not a nut job like pops-Genma is. Sis at least looks like a normal kid." Ranma said, glancing out in the yard where her sister was playing with Kasumi.

Nodoka smiled. "And me, Ranma?"

Ranma did not hesitate "Well, you´re my mom. Demon or whatever. I don´t care. Sorry ´bout freaking out like that."

The resulting hug almost broke Ranma´s ribcage.

o OS IUSTI MEDITABITUR SAPIENTIAM, ET LINGUA EIUS LOQUETUR IN DICIUM. o

"So, we are in agreement then?" Eli asked from the Shethar who had managed to escape from Hotaru´s clutches and was now sitting at the patio with the Archangel watching Kasumi playing with Hotaru.

"Ok, boss. I´ll do it, although I do not like it. Why did you have to bind me in this form. Possessing things comes with my nature and being a cat is VERY uncomfortable, you know." For Shethar it was a completely new experience to speak his mind to his superior and receive no punishment. Eli had insisted it and Shethar complied. No need to irritate one´s new boss after all.

Eli had decided to give Shethar a chance to get back at Kobal as long as he proved that he truly had no malicious intentions towards Ranma or anyone he cared for. For Shethar this suited just fine. He had nothing against Ranma and he had been truthful when he told Ranma that he had influenced his way of thinking. He might not possess an Angelic way of thinking and probably never would but the drive to corrupt present in all normal Shedim was all but completely gone and he would not resort in any sort of nasty mischief because that was the way his old boss worked and Shethar had had enough of Kobal after he supposedly saw it funny to imprison him in Ranma´s mind.

"You know that I do not trust you enough yet to give you a freedom to go as you please. Besides both you and Ranma need conditioning against that fear and I can´t contact someone like Blandine who knows more about phobias and such and ask her help without attracting too much of attention of wrong kind. You just need to adjust, at least you do not go insane like Ranma does. Have a catnip." Eli created some catnip and tossed it to the cat.

"What are you..." was all Shethar managed to say before he began to purr, roll about and toss the pieces of catnip around.

o QUID RIDES? MUTATO NOMINE DE TE FABULA NARRATUR. o

Menhael surveyed the establishment he was going to enter. It looked like a normal restaurant but when you were a sorcerer who probably had a dealings with demons you were a paranoid person, and so a visitor like Menhael should be prepared for all sorts of traps and tricks. Perhaps it should also be noted that Menhael himself was an utterly paranoid person. That was the only way one could survive and thrive in the ruthless world of the Game. Either you were a player or a pawn. Pawns got sacrificed and Menhael liked to be alive.

After he had concluded a quick scan of the area and deemed it safe enough to enter Menhael walked in. The restaurant was full of people and the lone waitress in a skimpy Chinese outfit seemed to be extremely busy.

"Shampoo sorry, no free place to eat. Mr. Customer take food with or come later, yes?" The waitress exclaimed in broken Japanese after she noticed his presence. Now that Menhael had studied her a while longer he decided that perhaps here would be a suitable target for his continuing mission to test humanity. The girl obviously was a warrior and an impulsive one at that if he read her body language right.

"Thank you but I did not come here for food. I am here to speak with Khu Lon. Could you point me to her." The girl would have to wait. It would not do any good to alarm the Sorceress at this point and the mind games he would like to play on the girl would be more effective if he had the time to make it subtle.

"Great-grandmother in kitchen." Shampoo pointed the direction of the kitchen and returned to serving other customers.

As Menhael approached the kitchen, Cologne, who had sensed a peculiar presence nearby, hopped in to the view with her cane. Menhael raised an eyebrow as he saw how diminutive the supposed sorceress was. No ordinary person could live that long so it was obvious that this old woman knew at least some Songs. He also remembered Happosai´s warning that she was a crafty one. Menhael suppressed a smirk, he did love cracking a challenge. As long as Malakim were not involved.

"Hello, you are Elder Khu Lon of the Chinese Amazons of Joketsuzoku, are you not? I have certain questions I would like you to answer."

"And who are you? I would like to know with whom I am talking." Cologne did not like at all the tone this stranger was using. It was not often any male (except Son-in-Law of course) dared to be so rude to her.

Menhael shrugged dismissively. "That is not important information. Lets just say that certain mutual undead acquaintance of ours pointed me to your direction. He´s a funny fellow, that Happy. Can you believe that he actually tried to summon Hatiphas just to grope her. Now that I call living on the edge."

Cologne suddenly understood that he was dealing with a Celestial. Only a select few humans knew the name of Hatiphas, Demon of Sorcery, patron of all evil Sorcerers and a very powerful Demon. None of them would have uttered that name aloud casually like this man had done. She herself had heard that name from her tutor when she had begun her advanced training in grey sorcery. Every sorcerer, like Cologne, who rejected Hell and tried to practice sorcery independently feared Hatiphas´s attention as it would mean certain doom. She had no choice but to play along to find out what the man wanted or there could be a real danger that he would point Hatiphas´s minions to her way.

As Cologne hesitated Menhael decided to continue. "I am here to find out all you can tell me about recent Celestial disturbances in Nerima. Let´s be blunt. Either you talk to me and I might make it worth your time or you can chat with my three friends who will be arriving soon. Triads tend to be a bit rough with Sorcerers."

Cologne nearly lost her balance. A Triad of Judgement was Bad news. They would come, ask a question or two and execute everyone they thought evil and drag all even slightly suspicious Angels back to heaven for questioning. Aside from some legendary figures like the three Magi, Solomon and Merlin sorcerers were considered evil by Angels. If it was true a Triad was coming in Nerima it would propably be wise to have a vacation for a while.

Knowledge was power and he obviously knew much. If he was an agent of either side of Celestial war he could get her deep in trouble. If he was an impostor he still knew enough about the true nature of the universe to be a grave threat if crossed. She decided to give in and tell this man whatever he wanted to know, and maybe, just maybe she could gain something by doing so. "Very well. Ask your questions."

o VIGILANDO, AGENDO, BENE CONSULENDO, PROSPERA OMNIA CEDUNT. o

"So, can ya cure me?" Ranma asked from Eli as he and Nodoka came to the backyard.

Eli eyed the girl in front of him from head to toe. "Hmm, I´ll try. I´m afraid this will hurt. A lot."

Ranma shrugged and looked indignant. "I´m not afraid of little pain. I wanna be guy again and I´ll do all it takes to make it happen."

Eli rolled his eyes. "Chill a bit girlie. I said I´ll do it but you must understand it will be the most painful thing you have ever felt as I need to strip you in your component Forces and build back exactly how you were before with you being aware of everything happening to you."

"I don´t care. Lets do it. And don´t call me girlie you old pothead," Ranma said, unaware that she was now pouting very girlishly.

Eli almost laughed out loud at the childish display. "Very well. Let´s go somewhere where we can be undisturbed though. It won´t do to reveal this place by causing a lot of Celestial noise in here."

"Lead the way old man," Ranma said.

"Wait, what exactly are you going to do to my son?" Nodoka asked in a concerned tone.

"Oh, basically I do the same thing I do every time I Redeem a Demon. Ranma is a half Lilim-half Malakite right now so I need to redeem the Lilim side and tweak it a bit. If I succeed you will have a son, if I screw up, you´ll end up with a son and a daughter. That is the most I think can happen. Redeeming is not that complicated as Ranma very much wants it and her soul is pure enough. Lets go." Eli almost forcefully pushed Ranma towards the house leaving a shocked Nodoka staring after them.

o AMARE ET SAPERE VIX DEO CONCEDITUR. o

Menhael updated his dossiers and ate some take away he had ordered before leaving Nekohanten. He did not get much about Celestial activity out of the old woman as it was obvious she did want to know about them as little as possible. Some other information, however was very interesting. Interesting enough that he had decided to reward the old woman with some minor artifacts. Take for example how this Ranma and his nemesis Ryoga were able to throw weak versions of certain Songs around almost instinctively. Both Happosai and Cologne had also given descriptions of all major NWC members that still were around and of some that had left a while ago. Next he would concentrate on Tendo household as it seemed to be the local nexus of intrigue.

o ROSA RUBICUNDIOR, LILIO CANDIDIOR, OMNIBUS FORMOSIOR, SEMPER IN TE GLORIOR . o

Ranma examined the dark jungle around her. It was a late night in where-ever they were and she couldn´t see further than couple of metres in any direction.

"So, why exactly did you pull a Ryoga on us? Couldn´t we have done this somewhere in Japan at least?"

"No, The Amazon Rainforest is one of the most remote parts of the world aside of the poles. We´ll be undisturbed in here. Besides this is one of my favorite places so I decided to come here."

"Okay, but how'd you do it. I´m very curious about how Ryoga manages to get lost like that all the time and you did it just like he does. You heard of him?"

" I just did a little Song of Location. And of course I know him. He´s wandered by now and then. Tries to bash my head in every time he sees me too. "

"Huh, you too? What did ya do to him?"

"Well, that´s an old story. I´ll tell it later. Right now, Girlie, we need to fix you."

"Hey, stop calling me that!" Ranma shouted scaring several nocturnal creatures to scurry away from the nearby thickets.

Eli winked at her. "Hehe, you are way too easy to tease, my dear. Ok, lets get in business. Relax and let whatever happens to happen. Ready?"

Ranma tried to relax herself. "Yeah, I am."

Eli encircled her with his arms and let the forces of pure Creation loose inside and around her. All she felt was a searing hot pain and a feeling that she was falling apart.

After a while Eli had almost managed to reconstruct Ranma back into a Malakite. The now male youngster had already a pair of jet black wings and a dark aura around him as he was in his new Celestial form. As Eli was finishing his work a backlash of power struck him and he accidentally let go of Ranma. Frantically he tried to keep control over the process but it was already too late. He could only do some manage control.

"Oops. Oh well. I told No-chan this might happen," Eli said as he began to reconstruct one Lilim and one Malakite whose transparent Celestial forms stared at each other in total shock. " I just hope nobody comes snooping around before I get these youngsters ready to merge back in one being." There was a hint of worry in his voice as he set to work.

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A/N:

Quite a while since I Last updated this. The plot may seem a bit confusing but hey, it´s Ranma´s life. As it was revealed he/she is in fact a Celestial and all weird happenings before (like her torching a bush or aging Mousse) were merely momentary manifestations of her powers which she had absolutely no control over. Just like when she Geased Jahaziel her Lilim-nature showed up for a while. The ki-claws were something Shethar was capable of doing and making those he posses do, to be precise a Song called Numinous Corpus, so now as he has own body Ranma can´t instictively manifest those claws if not taught properly.

Next time: A pissed-off Lilim mother on loose. Ranma´s Celestial training begins. What kind of person Ranma´s real father is and where´s Ukyo?

There will propably be quite a lot of side-characters so try not to be confused.


End file.
